Every player improves his game with the passage of time. Wickerkeeping of Mahendra Singh Dhoni was not up to the mark during his initial days with Team India. He used to be looked down upon due to his average glove work then. But as the time passed by, Dhoni improved his game behind the wicket and by virtue of superb wicketkeeping performance thereafter he turned out to be an effective ‘weapon’ in Indian cricket team.
Now, Dhoni will be seen playing for Chennai Super Kings in the IPL 2020 cricket tournament starting from 19 September. But after his retirement the big question arises as to who will be there after Dhoni in the Indian team. Wriddhiman Saha and Rishabh Pant are frontrunners at present. Saha has carved an important place for himself in world cricket. Apart from having an appreciable experience, Saha has good wicketkeeping skills as well.
But despite that, I will go for Rishabh Pant. Pant is younger and has a long career to play cricket. If he has some drawbacks in his keeping, then he will do away with them soon in future. This is exactly what Dhoni had done. He had improved his keeping with the passage of time. And, Rishabh Pant has improved his keeping much as well. Pant is a balancing factor for the team due to his batting skills also. Now it is up to Pant how he takes up the challenges.
First of all, Pant has t o o u t p e r f o r m t h e wicketkeepers of India and has to emerge as the best wicketkeeper of the world. He has great enthusiasm and he is laborious as well. I am confident that Pant will rise up to the expectations. The reason why I have trust in him is that Pant is a winnerbatsman, who helps the team to win the match. He had made Test centuries in Australia and England at a young age. If he succeeds in elevating his wicketkeeping graph then what more is needed.
The time is changing. The expectations of the team are also rising. Today, a wicketkeeper is not acceptable to the team just because of being only a perfect glovemen. If a keeper is also good at batting then his chances are better for being taken in Indian team. The past performances of wicketkeeper-batsmen from Andy Flower and Adam Gilchrist to several Sri Lankan glovemen cement this belief.
If a wicketkeeper has also the capability of giving good knocks as a batsman, then he fulfills the need of an all-rounder in the team. The example of Jos Buttler is before us, whose wicketkeeping is just average but his batting is superb because of which he is proving himself to be a match-winner for his team.
The writer is a former wicketkeeper. He has played 49 Tests and 94 ODIs for India.