World Cup 2023 IND vs NZ: SKY to replace Hardik in India's XI, hints Dravid

Rahul Dravid praised KL Rahul's role as a wicket-keeper batter. He also said that Surya has more chances of being the first-choice replacement for Hardik Pandya if needed against New Zealand.

With Hardik Pandya set to miss the India vs New Zealand clash, coach Rahul Dravid hinted that Suryakumar Yadav would get the finisher's role and not Ishan Kishan.
 

He was asked whether Ishan Kishan could be given a chance instead of Hardik Pandya as a finisher, given that New Zealand have left-handed spinners in their attack. Dravid said that for a finisher’s role, Surya will rather be preferred. He reasoned that Surya is also a good player of any spin. Suraya’s ability to play the role of an enforcer and a finisher also shifted the decision in his favour.

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"I mean, it is nice to have Ishan. And as you said, rightly, he's been playing well. He's a left-hander. But again, Surya has also come into some great form against Australia, as we saw. Played a couple of fantastic innings. Absolutely fantastic player against spin, as we know. Left arm spin or off-spin, or any kind of spin, for that matter," said the 50-year-old.

"And plus, the role may be for a middle-order role - so we will just have to see which one we want to – we are pretty clear about the kind of roles that people can play. So, if you are looking for someone who might be a bit of an enforcer for us in the lower middle order, then Surya is certainly someone who can do that. If you are looking for someone a little bit higher up the order, then maybe we might go with Ishan,” added Dravid.

Since Pandya wouldn’t be available, it would be interesting to see who gets into the Indian playing 11.  

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Dravid on KL Rahul as a keeper

Answering how he relates to Rahul, who, like him has been forced to keep wickets to play as a batter in the side, Dravid said, "It's certainly not easy, and I think he is doing a fantastic job of it. I thought Rahul's really kept superbly in this tournament and then batted really well whenever he's got the opportunity to do that, especially in the first game.”

“I think it is challenging because for someone like him who, and having had that experience myself. He's probably kept a little bit more than I have. As a youngster, he kept probably up to his under-19 days, and he's kept in a few T20 games, as well, for Karnataka and all that. So, he kept a little bit more than I did, but certainly not easy, considering he was also out with injury for four or five months,” he added.

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How was Rahul made to keep wickets?

Rahul was initially not playing as a keeper. Rishabh Pant’s injury forced Rahul to keep wickets to play an extra batter in the team. Explaining how the decision was taken, Dravid said, “When we first decided that he would keep, we wanted to have that kind of option with him as one of the options of being able to keep in and bat in the middle order and we thought we would build him up to this tournament by giving him game time and building him up.”

But the injury cost Rahul and the team a lot. Dravid talked about how KL recovered from it. He said, “Unfortunately, he couldn't keep for a while due to his injury. But the way he's come back and worked hard, even in his injury, he worked really hard. When he started getting back to skills, spent a lot of time with wicket-keeping, and worked really hard on it. So yeah, I thought he's kept really well in this thing. And it's been really good to see. It just certainly gives us a lot of confidence in him and his ability.”