Wicketkeeping Conundrum in T20Is for India
3 min readJan 17, 2024
Ishan Kishan opting out from the Test series against South Africa is still the talk of the town. He gave the message to BCCI that he is going through mental fatigue and needs some time. Since then, a lot of things didn’t go in his Favor. He was not in the T20I series against Afghanistan, and when the Indian team got announced for the 5-Test match series against England he was not there as well. Many rumors came out that he was dropped from the team because of indiscipline, etc.
And since then, we can see a small void in the team as far as the wicketkeeping position is concerned. The question becomes more important when you see no KL Rahul is playing in T20Is. As of now, after the T20 World Cup in 2022, the Indian team tested many young wicketkeepers, including Ishan Kishan, Jeetesh Sharma, and sometimes Sanju Samson. From that picture, it seems Jeetesh Sharma is looking as the front-line wicketkeeper for India in the T20I World Cup.
One thing noticeable as a viewer is that he has not been able to finish matches. His main duty coming at number 6 is not just to take the team closer to the hurdle but also to make sure that the team crosses the hurdle. He makes solid 20–30 runs in 15–16 balls, but after that, he usually gets out, which is not a good sign for him. As of now, the team is looking to proceed with him, which is a good move because you want a striker in the middle overs as a number 6 batter. He provides that assurance of aggressive play, which gives a good platform for India to make an extra 20–30 runs in the last few overs. The question arises of how he is going to deal when the score is 70–4 in 10 overs.
So, where is Sanju Samson? He played a fantastic knock in the must-win game against South Africa, made a classy hundred, and played a major role in winning the series for India in South Africa. He got selected for the T20I series against Afghanistan, but unfortunately, he has not played a single match till now, although one game is left, and India has already won the series.
Is India going to test him for a wicketkeeper position? Because they already saw Jeetesh Sharma in the last few months, who is good with his skills, but you also need backups. Before that, it was looking like Ishan was your frontline wicketkeeper just a few months back until the 5-match series against Australia. Suddenly, Jeetesh came into the picture, and from then on, the team persisted with him and when the T20 World Cup was after 5 months, they did not have much time to test the bench strength.
