On Saturday, July 30, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) finalized the squad for the three-match ODI series against Zimbabwe scheduled to be commencing on August 18. Once again, the senior pros like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, and Jasprit Bumrah have been rested. All these five cricketers missed India’s latest ODI series against West Indies, and Kohli and Bumrah are not even part of the ongoing T20I series.

Shikhar Dhawan, who led India to a 3-0 series win against West Indies, will be leading the 15-member squad on the Zimbabwe tour. Fans are already questioning BCCI’s decision to rest senior cricketers, after just one series, and this has not happened for the first time this year. The Indian management has been rotating the captaincy duties among seven players since the start of this year.

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The Indian management handed Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya their first captaincy cap earlier this year when Rohit was rested during South Africa and Ireland series, On the other hand, Jasprit Bumrah led the team in the fifth rescheduled Test match against England earlier this month. The former Pakistan skipper Rashid Latif reckons that this rotation is not helpful and believes that India is making the same mistake that Pakistan did in the 1990s.

In the latest video on his Youtube channel, Rashid Latif said, “Everyone talks about backup. But they have now produced seven backup captains in the past year! This is the first time I’m seeing this in India’s history. Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Rishabh Pant, Jasprit Bumrah, they are repeating the same mistake as Pakistan’s in the 1990s.”

The star opening batter KL Rahul is Rohit’s deputy across the formats but hasn’t played any game since the conclusion of the Indian Premier League 2022 at the end of May. He has been struggling with injuries for the last few months and after testing positive for Covid-19, he missed his comeback on the West Indies tour.

It is clear that India is looking for future captaincy options, with both Rahul and Rohit missing international games quite often than not. But Rashid Latif added that no current captaincy option is playing regular cricket, and India needs to find a solid leader like Sourav Ganguly, MS Dhoni, and Kohli.

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Rashid Latif explained, “They haven’t found a solid opener, nor do they have a stable middle-order. They just want a new captain. No captain is playing consistently for them. KL Rahul is unfit now; Rohit was unfit before. Virat is mentally unfit. So, they will have to think about it. They are changing so many captains.. they need a leader like Sourav Ganguly, MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli.”