Discussed about keeping with KL, he was confident: Dravid

NEW DELHI:

KL Rahul

keeping the wickets in the upcoming Test series against South Africa gives the team a cushion of an extra batter and head coach

Rahul Dravid

on Sunday said the fellow Bengaluru man was confident of doing the job.
Rahul has been keeping in limited-overs cricket but with

Ishan Kishan

taking a ‘mental health' break and

KS Bharat

having been found technically inept in terms of batting abilities in the traditional format, the team sees Rahul as the only viable option.

“I see it as an exciting challenge, an opportunity for him to certainly do something different. Obviously, with Ishan not being available this opportunity came up, we had a couple of keepers to choose from and Rahul is one of them.
We had discussed with him and he was very confident and was keen on giving it a go,” Dravid said during a media interaction.

While Dravid understood that the challenges of keeping in Tests was entirely different but he trusted the fellow Bengaluru man to do a good job, having shown decent abilities in the 50-over version.
“We do understand it is not something he has done as often (keeping in Tests). But he has been doing it regularly in 50 overs cricket and that takes a lot out of your body. He has prepared well over the last five to six months, he has done a lot of keeping,” Dravid said.

Rahul won't need to keep much against spin
While Dravid explained the rationale behind opting Rahul as wicketkeeper, he also dropped hint that there won't be much spin bowling on this track effectively ruling out Ravichandran Ashwin as second spinner.
“This will be a new and exciting challenge for him. I guess one of the things is there's not going to be that much spin bowling, so that will ease him into the role a little bit, something how it goes and pans out,” the coach said.
“It's really nice to have him for the option he provides us. His ability with the bat will be useful and he has kept in white ball cricket and the question is of transforming that into red ball cricket,” the coach added.
There is a forecast for heavy rains during the first two days and chances of moisture beneath the surface but Dravid was confident that his team has bowling depth to counter adverse conditions.
“Look, you need to check out what happens on the match day. We still have another day left before the match starts. We need to see what's in-front of us. What's up there (sky) and what's down there (pitch), you will only know on the match day,” the coach said.

“We will take a decision but we have balance, if we want, we can play two spinners and three seamers and maybe four seamers. We have that depth and balance (in team) but you can't control weather,” he sounded a tad bullish.
(With inputs from PTI)