India's head coach Gautam Gambhir made it clear that KL Rahul is team's first-choice wicketkeeper going into the Champions Trophy and the flamboyant Rishabh Pant is not being considered as an option in the playing eleven in the immediate future.
Among all the players that were chosen for the England ODIs, only Pant wasn't given a start by the head coach as all the others got at least one game if not three.
Rahul, who initially batted at No. 6 in the first two games, didn't look comfortable and fared far better at the familiar No. 5 position with a useful 40 off 29 balls in India's one-sided 142-run victory in the third ODI here.
"Ultimately, it is very difficult to talk about individuals. But all I can say is that if he is part of the squad, when time comes, he might get an opportunity. But at the moment, obviously, KL is the No 1 wicketkeeper and he has delivered for us," Gambhir told media persons at the series-ending press conference.
"When you've got two wicket keepers in the squad, you can't play both the wicketkeepers with the kind of quality we've got. Hopefully, whenever he (Pant) gets that opportunity, he should be ready for it. That's all I can say at the moment. Yes, KL is the one who's going to start," Gambhir added.
When asked about the reason for sending Axar Patel at No 5 in first two games when Rahul had a great average at that position, the former India opener reiterated his oft-stated stance of team coming first ahead of individuals.
"We don't look at averages and stats. We look at who can deliver when," he replied.
Speaking of the ODI series win over England, Gambhir said while there will never be a case of ticking all boxes without specifying what India did not achieve, he praised the team for the all-round show.
"See, there will never be a case where all the boxes will be ticked, but yes, (it is a) good result, important thing is that we were very very professional today," he said.
"We could have easily seen this game as a dead rubber, but the important thing was that we wanted to try and put ourselves under pressure, we wanted to try and play this game as a must-win game and guys actually turned up like that.”
Gambhir said India wanted to manage Mohammed Shami's workload which is why the bowler played two matches each in the T20I and ODI series.
"We were trying to manage his workload, that's the reason why we played him in two T20s and two ODIs and hopefully he's going to be fresh and ready to go in the Champions Trophy," he said.
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