KS Bharat Added To India's Squad As Cover For Wriddhiman Saha Ahead Of England Tour

Indian keeper-batsman KS Bharat will travel to the United Kingdom, where Virat Kohli’s men will engage in six Tests with New Zealand and England. India start their tour with the ICC World Test Championship final against New Zealand in Southampton on the 18th of June, followed by five Tests against England in August. The selectors reportedly opted for KS Bharat as cover for Wriddhiman Saha.

Though Wriddhiman Saha, who recently recovered from COVID-19, is fit to enter the bio-bubble in Mumbai before flying to England, the selection committee did not want to take any chances. They included the young keeper-batsman, keeping in mind the COVID-19 protocols and guidelines. KS Bharat has featured in 78 first-class fixtures, scoring 4823 runs at 37.24 with nine centuries and 23 fifties. He has also taken 270 catches and affected 31 stumpings in first-class cricket.

Wriddhiman Saha was amongst the players testing positive for COVID-19 midway through IPL 2021. The 36-year old, who was part of SunRisers Hyderabad, was amongst the few infections reported that forced the BCCI to postpone the tournament indefinitely. Earlier, the Indian selectors named him in the squad; however, his availability depended upon his fitness and was one of the members selected based on that criteria along with KL Rahul and Prasidh Krishna.

He was added as cover for Wriddhiman Saha considering he was still recovering from the virus: Sources

Reliable sources claimed that since Wriddhiman Saha is still in the recovery process, they selected KS Bharat in the squad. With wicketkeeping being a specialist job, they would need a candidate to fill in for him as the tour extends to three months.

“He was added as cover for Saha considering he was still recovering from the virus and wicket-keeping is a specialised job. If Saha wasn’t fit in time, we would have needed a second keeper in the squad for the tour which is a three-month long one,” Sources claim as per Times of India.

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