IND vs SA 2022: Ishan Kishan or Rishabh Pant - who will be India's wicketkeeper?

Choices bring debates and the glut of options that the IPL has thrown India's way this year has meant there's a debate for every second spot in the T20I XI. The wicketkeeper-batter spot is one such case, with Rishabh Pant, Dinesh Karthik, and Ishan Kishan all selected for the impending visit of South Africa.

Sanju Samson, who scored more runs than all three in IPL 2022, and Rahul Tripathi, who had the second-best strike rate, are desperately waiting for their chances back home. Also skipper for the rubber, KL Rahul and youngster Ruturaj Gaikwad can also keep wickets when needed.

This piece will look into who between Pant and Kishan is likely to be trusted with the gloves in the five T20Is, how Karthik's addition affects the dynamic and whether all three of them can play together, at least as a one-off experiment.

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Ishan Kishan - selected as a pure batter?

The BCCI's 19-member squad for the series has only earmarked Pant and Karthik as the keepers, suggesting that Ishan is being looked at as a pure batter for now. He's been the team's go-to backup opening option for Rahul and Rohit Sharma. After a sub-par IPL (418 runs from 14 games), he is likely to remain so.

His only competition for that position seems to be Ruturaj Gaikwad, but India's home series against Sri Lanka last year showed that the management still hasn't put him ahead of Kishan in the pecking order. An IPL season where the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) opener averaged 26.29 and struck at 126.46 is unlikely to change that.

Pant was also tried as an opener in an ODI game this year but that looks like an experiment-under-work that shouldn't be replicated this close to the T20 World Cup. Venkatesh Iyer, who usually opens for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the IPL, is also in the team but will probably be used as a low-batting all-rounder.

Finally, Kishan also possessing the left-hander advantage over Gaikwad almost guarantees him as Rahul's opening partner for the series. And despite his tangibly improved wicketkeeping skills, he's unlikely to wear the gloves against the Proteas.

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Rishabh Pant - can he be dropped?

Pant has also been chosen as the vice-captain of the team in this series, which makes him almost undroppable for the series. The Delhi Capitals skipper is likely to take the No. 4 spot in the batting order, from where he could munch on the opposition spinners and lay the platform for Karthik and Pandya.

Karthik has defied his age to emerge as the best finisher in the country, but at 37, he's not India's long-term wicketkeeping option. Team India, under Rohit and Rahul Dravid, have already clarified their forward-looking stance, which suggests that they are unlikely to be tempted by Karthik's experience and stick with Pant.

This doesn't mean that Karthik won't feature in the playing XI. The Men in Blue faced dire consequences for deploying three wicketkeepers - Karthik being one of them - together in the 2019 World Cup. But it was a massive stage where the team combination should have been robust and marked by crystal clear strategies.

Here, in the absence of multiple first-choice players, the team selection won't be a reflection of India's World Cup plans. Instead, the focus will be on testing the potential of fringe players and finding the right spots for them. Karthik deserves this chance more than anyone else and he'll likely bat at No. 6 and guard the outfield.

The only way someone else can play as the wicketkeeper is if Pant gets injured or gets rested mid-series. The youngster's workload has been immense in the last couple of years - the toll showed in IPL 2022 - and he'll fly straight to England soon after this series too. In that case as well, Karthik will get priority over Kishan.