India 'A' keeper KS Bharat thinks he’s capable of representing India

Even though 20-year-old Rishabh Pant made his Test debut in England replacing Dinesh Karthik, the race for finding the replacement of iconic Mahendra Singh Dhoni has just begun. And Andhra’s 24-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman Kona Srikar Bharat could be the next name to be discussed in details as far as India’s future plans on wicket-keepers are concerned.

India tried the trio of Wriddhiman Saha, Dinesh Karthik and Parthiv Patel as keepers for long and while Saha showed a lot of promise has struggled with fitness, Karthik and Patel failed to be consistent at the highest level, necessitating the debut of youngster Pant at Trent Bridge in England this summer. He made a decent debut but is yet to learn a lot in the future.

Bharat, on the other hand, scored a hundred while playing for India A in the second Unofficial Test against Australia A and is his first in nearly three years.

The transition also gives players like Bharat an opening. He recently spoke with ESPNcricinfo.com in an interview where he said: “I used to do it in practice, but never kept in any state team till I was 19. Not even one over. I played for the state team for nearly 10 years, but my last year, in the [Under] 19s, is when I started. I kept in two games – one full match and one in the second innings. That is when I came into Ranji cricket. There was a need for a keeper who could bat, so my association supported me.”

Bharat, who has played 52 first-class games and scored 2,905 runs at an average of 35 plus and took 185 catches and effected stumpings since making debut in 2013, has featured regularly for India ‘A’ and ‘B’ teams in recent times and could be a surprise pick in the side when India tour Australia for a full-fledged tour later this year. He has four hundreds in first-class cricket and even slammed a 300 against Goa in 2015, becoming the first wicketkeeper-batsman to do so in Ranji Trophy.

Bharat gives credit to his coach Krishna Rao

The young player gave credit to his coach at Vishakhapatnam’s Centre of Excellence, Krishna Rao, and said: “He told me that there’ll be a time when India will hunt for wicketkeepers, and I’ll be in that race. I’ve never believed my coach, to be honest. But it was nice to hear and I agreed reluctantly and continued, I could get on with the game and skip some college in the process! [Then] I started taking the game seriously, I started respecting the [wicketkeeping] gloves.” He said whatever his coach said is seeming to be true and gave Rao all the credit for his making.

When asked whether he believed he has the ability to play for India, Bharat said: “Yes. I’m capable of playing for India. Whether the selectors think of me or what others think of me, about how long I haven’t scored a hundred – those things don’t matter.”

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