‘India Might Consider Ishan Kishan Ahead of KS Bharat..’: Harsha Bhogle Reveals his Playing XI for WTC Final 2023

Renowned cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle has picked Ishan Kishan as his first-choice wicketkeeper for the upcoming World Test Championship final against Australia. While many cricketers such as Saba Karim and Harbhajan Singh picked Bharat over Kishan who is yet to make his debut in Test cricket, Bhogle has stated that Kishan can exploit the batting conditions in England.

With the WTC final 2023 set to take place at the Oval in London, Bhogle tweeted that as many as 9 players are more or less confirmed for the Indian team’s playing XI.

He named the likes of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, and Cheteshwar Pujara among those who are most certainly set to start the marquee clash against Australia, whereas, there are some players who are in the midst of a hotly contested race to nail down their berth in the playing XI.

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The biggest debate ahead of the WTC final has been regarding the wicketkeeper pick, with Ishan Kishan and KS Bharat the two likely candidates.

While most experts have gone with Bharat, given he has prior experience of playing for India during the Border Gavaskar Trophy earlier this year, Bhogle on the other hand backed Kishan to pip the former for a place in the side.

He also named Ravichandran Ashwin in the team with Umesh Yadav and Jaydev Unadkat among the two picks for the number 9 spot.

“I think 9 players pick themselves for India. Rohit, Gill, Pujara, Virat, Rahane, Jadeja, Bharat, Shami, Siraj. Depending on conditions/instinct/form, no 8 could be Ashwin (my choice) or Shardul and no 9 Umesh or Unadkat. In very good batting conditions alone, India might consider Ishan ahead of Bharat,” tweeted Bhogle.

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When Bharat played in the Border Gavaskar Trophy, his batting has a tad bit underwhelming as he could only manage to score 101 runs across six innings at an average of 20.20, and with Kishan’s ability to smash the ball hard, he would certainly add more steel to India’s batting lineup.