‘You have to be equally good keeper and batsman’: Parthiv Patel picks India’s wicket-keeper for Australia Tests

Ever since MS Dhoni’s retirement from international cricket, choosing the wicket-keeper-batsman has been one of the main headaches for the Indian think tank. Although Dhoni had retired from Test five years ago but India haven’t quite been able to finalise the keeper-batsman in the longest format. They have been juggling between Wriddhiman Saha and Rishabh Pant while Parthiv Patel and Dinesh Karthik too made brief appearances.

Ahead of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, India have similar problems. They have make the difficult choice between Saha and Pant for the first Test starting on December 17.

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Parthiv Patel, who announced his retirement on Wednesday, picked India’s first-choice wicket-keeper for the upcoming Test series against Australia.

Parthiv put his weight firmly behind Saha and termed him the best keeper of India.

“I still believe in Test matches, your best keeper should play like Wriddhiman Saha for India. Yes, the skills change as per formats but I believe now, you have to be equally good keeper and batsman to play for India,” Parthiv said.

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Saha scored an unbeaten 54 in the first warm-up game against Australia A. His gritty knock helped India A salvage a draw from a tricky situation in the three-day affair.

If the first warm-up is anything to go by then it does like Saha will get the nod ahead of Pant, who did not feature in that practice game.

However, things could change quickly if India decide to field Pant in the second practice pink-ball practice game ahead of their first day-night Test on foreign soil in Adelaide.