India’s young wicketkeeper KS Bharat has revealed that he received invaluable advice from Indian cricket legend MS Dhoni ahead of the upcoming World Test Championship (WTC) Final 2023. Notably, India will take on Australia in the upcoming WTC Final at the Kennington Oval from June 7, and Bharat has been picked in the Indian team as a specialist wicketkeeper-batter.
Speaking to Sanjana Ganesan in an interview conducted by the International Cricket Council (ICC) ahead of the summit clash, Bharat said he had a detailed conversation with Dhoni in the Indian Premier League (IPL 2023) regarding wicketkeeping in English conditions. He even asserted that the former India captain also went on to share his playing experiences in England with him during the discussion.
“Recently during the IPL I had a word with Mahendra. He (talked about) his experiences keeping in England as well as what would work the best for any wicketkeeper. It was a very good conversation and there were a lot of insights from that,” said Bharat.
Further in the interview, Bharat also talked about the qualities of a good wicketkeeper and hailed Chennai Super Kings (CSK) skipper Dhoni as the perfect example of a great keeper.
“It’s the awareness – the best example is MS Dhoni, the awareness he has in keeping is outstanding. You need intent and passion to be a keeper, because keeping is a thankless job. You keep 90 overs in a Test day and you have to be concentrating ball by ball, so you have to accept the challenges and embrace it and be really passionate about contributing to the team,” Bharat told Sanjana.
It is worth mentioning that Bharat has played only four Tests in his career so far, and all of those were against Australia in India earlier this year. He was picked as a replacement for the injured Rishabh Pant in the team due to his exceptional wicketkeeping. However, his batting performance in the series was underwhelming, with a highest score of 44 in six innings.
Although Ishan Kishan has also been included in India’s squad for WTC Final 2023, Bharat is more likely to make his place into the playing eleven of India as Kishan is yet to debut in the longest format of the game.
