MS Dhoni still remains the No 1 wicket-keeper in the world, said Chairman of selectors MSK Prasad.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni is set to continue till the 2019 World Cup as some of the younger keepers, said Chairman of selectors MSK Prasad on Saturday. Prasad said that there was no one close enough to replace Dhoni in the national team and made it clear that who have been tried, are not even close to the former Indian captain's level.
Asked if they are looking at Dhoni on a series by series basis, Prasad said: "We are grooming some wicketkeepers during India A tours. But more or less, we have fixed up (our) minds till the World Cup (on continuing with Dhoni) and after that at later stages we will start grooming some of those (wicket- keepers)."
"I think MS Dhoni still remains the No 1 wicket-keeper in the world and day in and day out we have been saying this. In the current T20 series (against Sri Lanka), the stumpings he has effected and caught-behind he has taken are phenomenal," Prasad said praising the former Indian captain.
"There is no comparison and I don't see any wicket- keeper, who can even come closer to him in world cricket, leave alone Indian Cricket," his statement more or less sealed the fate of all young keepers till the 2019 World Cup.
Prasad's statement means that the likes of Rishabh Pant and Sanju Samson, who are next in line, will need to wait more for their chance at the highest level. Prasad's views make it clear that Delhi captain Pant has now fallen off the radar quite sharply with the second keeper in limited overs being 32-year-old Dinesh Karthik.
"Let me tell you frankly, those boys still are not up to the level as what we would have expected. We will still be giving them chances on India A tours and see that they are nurtured," Prasad, himself a former India wicket-keeper, said.
Prasad's praise for Dhoni is quite in contrast to his earlier statement where he had said that Dhoni's place in the team was not granted and they were looking at his performance on a series by series basis. Prasad has attracted a lot of criticism on social media for putting a question mark over Dhoni's place in ODI and T20 team.
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 "MS Dhoni")
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