Ever since Team India’s poor show in the T20 World Cup 2022 semi-final, the team has been led by two different captains. While Hardik Pandya is leading the team in T20Is, Rohit Sharma continues to lead the side in the 50-over format as well. In fact, Rohit, Virat Kohli and KL Rahul are yet to play a T20I since India’s exit from the 2022 edition of the T20 World Cup as well. and, former India opener turned commentator Aakash Chopra has said that Rohit will remain India’s ODI and Test captain till this year. But he also named who can take over in near future.
“I don’t think we will see a single captain for all formats just yet, I think those days are over. Rohit Sharma will be the Test team’s captain till the WTC, that’s not going to change – it is going to stay like that,” he said on Jio Cinema.
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“Hardik Pandya is currently the captain in the T20 format, and I think he will continue to do so and in the ICC T20 World Cup 2024, you will see Pandya be the captain of the Indian team. In One-Day cricket, Rohit Sharma will continue to be the captain till the World Cup. But I think in the long term, in terms of India’s captaincy, it will be Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant. These are my two candidates for India’s captaincy in the future,” he again stated.
However, Rishabh Pant recently met with a horrific car crash and he is likely to be out of action for quite some time now. Aakash Chopra also shared his thoughts on the ideal replacement for Rishabh Pant across formats.
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“It is really unfortunate that Rishabh Pant isn’t available for us at the moment. He is the kind of player who can play in all formats and is an excellent one too. What I feel is that we will see various players across the different formats. I would say KS Bharat and Ishan Kishan, both are in contention for Test cricket. If you need a better keeper then KS Bharat but if you need an explosive left-hand batter because we don’t have a lefty in the top order, then I would say we can say, Ishan Kishan. Personally, my preference will be KS Bharat because he can keep the scoreboard ticking in Tests and we need someone who is going to be able to handle Ravichandran Ashwin and Jadeja’s bowling behind the wicket. In T20s, It’s going to be a toss-up between Ishan Kishan and Sanju Samson and ODIs will obviously feature KL Rahul behind the wicket, there is no question about it,” Aakash Chopra concluded.
