Colombo: The Gautam Gambhir-led Indian team management has an opportunity to decide who among KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant will be India’s long-term first-choice wicketkeeper-batter in ODIs when the side takes on Sri Lanka in a three-match series beginning here on Friday.
There will be clamour around the first sighting of veterans Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli as well, after the recent T20 World Cup triumph.
But the think-tank will look to shut out that outside noise, focusing on sorting out the combination in a season that has some marquee one-day events including the Champions Trophy.
In that context, the Rahul vs Pant conundrum is certain to get priority treatment in this series.
Rahul is the incumbent wicketkeeper-batter and has been assigned to that role by the previous set-up under Rahul Dravid since last year’s Asia Cup, a tournament in which he made his comeback from a long injury-forced layoff.
Since then, Rahul has done full justice to his duty both in front and behind the wicket.
Since the continental showpiece last year, Rahul has made 834 runs from 21 matches at a fine average of 69.50 with two hundreds. Besides, Rahul also captained India in the ODI series against South Africa earlier this year
As a stumper too, the 32-year-old has been pretty good.
But will Gambhir follow the same route since Pant is back in the reckoning?
Pant’s return to India fold through a clutch of T20Is after that horrific accident in 2022 has been heartwarming but he has not set the field ablaze with his outings.
There have been encouraging sparks during the last month or so. But is that enough to convince the powers that be to pick him ahead of Rahul?
If Gambhir and skipper Rohit decide to keep both Rahul and Pant in the 11, then they will have to think as to how to accommodate Shreyas Iyer, another formidable player in the 50-over version.
In his last ODI outing, Iyer made a 52 against South Africa at Johannesburg, and his record in 2023 is also impressive – 846 runs from 20 matches at an average of 53 with three hundreds.
So, it could be a three-way tie between Rahul, Pant and Iyer for two batting slots because if India go ahead with all three of them, then they will have to play with five bowlers.
India might not want to walk that rigid path particularly with Hardik Pandya missing this series because of personal reasons.
Hence, India might just want to give a run to either Shivam Dube or Riyan Parag at No. 6.
However, the management entrusting Parag with bowling duties in the just-concluded T20Is could be a precursor to the larger role he might get in the ODI series.
That Parag can shift between off-spin and leg-spin effectively too brightens his chance, something he was not able to showcase much in the IPL, courtesy the Impact Player rule.
But the Assam player has a fairly noticeable body of work in the domestic 50-over competition – the Deodhar Trophy.
He took 11 wickets last season to be placed sixth behind Vidwath Kaverappa (13), Shams Mulani (12), Mayank Yadav (12), Shahbaz Ahmed (12) and R Sai Kishore (11) at a good economy of 4.8.
In contrast, Dube, who appeared in an ODI five years ago, played only one match in the series against Sri Lanka and was not summoned to bowl.
Amid all this, Gambhir will also keep an eye on the outings of Rohit and Kohli, whom he said will have a major part to play going forward.
This will also be the first ODI for the duo after that deflating defeat against Australia in last year’s World Cup final at Ahmedabad, and they will be eager to mark the return to 50-over format with a special outing.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka, a mixture of young and experienced names, will want to avoid a batting collapse that led them to their doom in the T20I series despite enjoying periods of dominance.
