KS Bharat missed out on a spot in India's Test cricket squad for the upcoming West Indies tour. But chief selector MSK Prasad has reiterated that the Vishakapatnam native is still in his plans, and could have a role to play in some other series in 2019.
"We have taken the India A performances into consideration, the performances of Manish Pandey, Shreyas Iyer has been phenomenal and so is Navdeep Saini and also in the longer format it was KS Bharat, was very very close to getting selected," said Prasad.
Prasad went on to reveal that Rishabh Pant, Wriddhiman Saha and Bharat will battle it out as India's wicketkeepers in the Test format. Regarding Wriddhiman's call-up, Prasad said that the selectors have an unwritten norm that if an established cricketer gets injured, then he gets a chance upon a comeback.
"I can tell that with the stellar performances that KS Bharat is doing, in India A, last three series he has got three centuries and he picked up about 50 dismissals, which is a fantastic thing and he was very, very close and these are Rishabh, KS and Wrdiddhiman Saha are three guys we will be looking at Test cricket for sometime," said Prasad.
Bharat has been in excellent form lately. He scored centuries for India A against Australia A, Sri Lanka A and England Lions. He is also a good wicketkeeper.
