With Shreyas Iyer dishing out some tremendous performances, India seem to have finally sorted out the dilemma for the no. 4 position, which has troubled the team for the longest time. But another issue which still remains is deciding the position of the wicketkeeper. Former India captain MS Dhoni has been away from cricket for over a year now, and it remains unclear if Dhoni would be making an international return ever again.

For the longest time, Rishabh Pant was viewed and groomed as Dhoni’s successor for the keeping position. Pant’s hard-hitting style of play made him a like-for-like replacement for Dhoni. But after an inconsistent run in 2019, question marks surround Pant’s future.

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In 2020, KL Rahul was tried as the wicketkeeper in the limited-overs series against Australia and New Zealand. Rahul was impressive with his keeping skills and even got runs on the board with the bat. Now, it remains to be seen whether Rahul or Pant take the position of the wicketkeeper in the team.

Former all-rouner Roger Binny believes that the ‘healthy competition’ between the two cricketers will eventually help the team in the long run.

“I think it’s a healthy competition because KL Rahul actually picks himself as a batsman. He is a brilliant opening batsman, who can keep, who can double up as a keeper also for the team, whereas Pant is a middle-order batsman. He is a brilliant talent. He’s got the shots; he is ideally suited for the shorter version of the game,” Binny told Sportskeeda in a Facebook Live interview.

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“If somebody has a rough season, you can always call back the other. Both can even fit into the team as batsmen,” Roger Binny added.

“It is basically what the team needs. See, if the captain feels Rishabh can perform there as a wicket-keeper, he’ll get it. If they lose confidence in Rishabh, they can go back to KL Rahul, but they have somebody in the team who can keep wickets too. That’s a good thing to have with you as captain,” Binny further said.

Rahul has also kept wickets in the IPL for Kings XI Punjab franchise over the years. In January this year, after the first T20I, the Karnataka batsman had said that he is enjoying the additional responsibility of a wicketkeeper. “I am honestly loving it, in the international stage it might look that I am new to wicket-keeping, but I have done this role in the domestic cricket. I have done it for my IPL franchise, I enjoy staying behind the stumps,” Rahul had said.