Richa Ghosh, Taniya Bhatia must be given extended run as keepers to prove themselves: Saba Karim

Former India stumper Saba Karim reckons that India Women wicket-keepers Richa Ghosh and Taniya Bhatia need to be given a long enough rope to prove their worth.

In 2021, India Women have tried Nuzhat Parween and Sushma Verma apart Ghosh and Bhatia as keeper batters. Among them, Ghosh has impressed in white-ball cricket while Bhatia has done well in Tests.

According to Karim, the likes of Ghosh and Bhatia must be backed because they were chosen in the first place because of their talent.

“That is something that needs to be addressed by the selectors (too many changes in wicket-keepers). But I think that it will take them some time to figure out the needs of the side. I think with a new professional system that we have come up with, you have a new coach, Ramesh Powar, and then you have Shiv Sunder Das. They would be the best people to understand what the team needs and the kind of player they are looking at,” Karim said while responding to a Sportskeeda query, during an interaction organized by Sony.

Karim, a cricketer-turned-analyst, picked Ghosh and Bhatia as his two wicket-keeping choices for limited-overs and Tests respectively.

“Presently, I feel Richa Ghosh ticks most of the boxes because she is handy with the gloves and she is a good power hitter. For white-ball cricket, they want to go ahead with Richa Ghosh. For Test matches, we have seen Taniya Bhatia. She played such a stellar role in this pink-ball Test match and even in England. So I think, at this stage, the selectors and the management are looking at these two keepers - one for red-ball cricket and one for white-ball cricket. But I do agree, if you have shown this kind of trust, you need to give them an extended run so that they are able to perform much better,” Karim stated.

While Ghosh has played three ODIs and nine T20Is, Bhatia took the gloves during the Tests in England and Australia.

“Yastika Bhatia plays with a positive mindset” - Saba Karim

21-year-old Yastika Bhatia made an impressive debut in the ODIs in Australia. She scored 102 runs with a best of 64 in the third match. Karim agreed that her emergence bodes well for India.

“She is such an elegant left-hander and she plays with such a positive mindset, which is what you need. I was chatting with WV Raman the other day, the former India women’s coach, and he also stressed on the fact that we need more and more cricketers of that kind to come into the system. We need players who are positive, who have strong footwork, strong basics and they can play their shots. That’s what, I am sure, the current coaching staff is also trying to inculcate in all these cricketers,” Karim stated, while responding to another Sportskeeda query.

India Women will take on Australia Women in a three-match T20I series, which starts on October 7 in Queensland.