Former India head coach Ravi Shastri feels KS Bharat would be the “obvious choice” of the team management for the wicketkeeper’s role in the World Test Championship final against Australia to be played at The Oval next month.

With India’s first-choice keeper Rishabh Pant recovering from a car crash and his back-up KL Rahul recuperating from a surgery on his right thigh, the Indian team management is in a dilemma on who to select between Bharat and Ishan Kishan.

Shastri said since Bharat had kept wickets during the Border-Gavaskar series earlier this year, he expected the 29-year-old to get the management’s nod ahead of Kishan.

“You have to see who’s a better keeper. Is it Bharat or Ishan Kishan? Now, the fact that Bharat was given a run against Australia, where he played all the Test matches, I think he would be the obvious choice to go with,” Shastri said on the ICC Review.

Shastri indicated that the playing conditions at the WTC final venue would decide who gets to play. “See, that’s another tight one (decision). Now, if two spinners are playing, then you would want Bharat to play,” said Shastri.

Kishan brings variety in an otherwise right-hand dominant batting line-up and the former India coach said there is not much separating the two cricketers.

“There’s not much there. It’s not that one guy is far better than the other. Batting will also come into play, whether you want Ishan Kishan’s batting to shore up the middle order. That’s another thing you’ll take into perspective.”