World Test Championship: India have all bases covered, says Parthiv Patel

Dubai: India have all the bases covered for the World Test Championship final against New Zealand, said former wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel. Parthiv pointed to those that did not make the squad for the trip to England as a show of batting strength for India.

“If we talk about batsmen — Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rishabh Pant — there’s a proper band of proper batsmen who can bat well in England,” he said. “Everyone scored runs, and there is a spare batsman in KL Rahul. Imagine KL Rahul not finding a space in the Test squad, so how strong this squad could be.” The WTC final is set to be held at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton from June 18 to 22.

Patel also praised the bowling attack of India. “You talk about fast bowlers, we’ve got Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma, Mohammad Shami and if any of them is not fit, then there’s Mohammad Siraj and Umesh Yadav. There’s enough depth in the squad,” he said.

“Then there is Axar Patel, who has probably been the man of the match in a lot of matches against England. He came in place of Ravindra Jadeja and it felt like Jadeja will be out. Now Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin will be back, so I think this squad looks really strong.”