Former Indian opener, Aakash Chopra said on Saturday that India shouldn’t have replaced Shikhar Dhawan as the captain for the ODI series against Zimbabwe, opining that the senior batter should have led the team during their overseas trip. Aakash Chopra, speaking on his YouTube channel, said KL Rahul could have continued playing as a pure batter in Zimbabwe before he could play the role of Rohit Sharma’s deputy at the Asia Cup, starting August 27 in the UAE.

However, the BCCI on August 11 announced that KL Rahul was fit again for the ODI series and he will be leading the ODI squad while Shikhar Dhawan will be his deputy. Notably, under the captaincy of Dhawan led India in the ODI series against the West Indies last month when the seniors were rested and KL Rahul was unavailable after he contracted Covid-19.

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Talking about the some in the latest video on his Youtube channel, Aakash Chopra said, “If it was in my hands, I would have avoided that. He (Rahul) was originally not named in the squad for Zimbabwe series. I understand he is the vice-captain for the Asia Cup but there is another truth, that currently there are 8-10 captains in the team. Rishabh Pant is captain, Hardik Pandya is captain, and I do not think Suryakumar is far away from captaincy.”

He further added, “Rohit Sharma is the captain, Virat Kohli has been the captain before. It was not important; this thing could have been avoided. Shikhar Dhawan is a senior guy; how does it matter if he is the captain? KL Rahul can play purely as a batter, it does not matter if he is the captain or not. You could have carried on with it, if you had announced Shikhar Dhawan as captain, you could have let it be. In my opinion, Dhawan should have stayed as the captain.”

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All eyes will be on KL Rahul as the star batter will be looking to find form ahead of the Asia Cup. The star opener last toured Zimbabwe in 2016 wherein he scored 196, including a hundred, in 3 ODIs.