Rohit Sharma’s Test captaincy is under scrutiny after India lost the World Test Championship (WTC 2023) final to Australia recently, but former BCCI selector Devang Gandhi has questioned who are the options after him to lead the Test side and himself presented with two names who can be handed the leadership on interim basis.
The Indian team’s next assignment is a two-match Test series against the West Indies next month. This will be India’s first series in the WTC 2023-25 cycle, and after finishing runners-up in both previous cycles, the number one ranked Test team will certainly fancy their chances of reaching another final.
However, at the end of the WTC cycle 2023-25, Rohit will be 38 years old; also, six members of India’s playing eleven in the recently finished WTC final versus Australia were aged 34 or older, including Rohit.
Former Indian opener and selector Devang Gandhi feels that the selectors need to have a chat with Rohit, who is entering the fag end of his career to chart a way forward for Indian cricket.
“That discussion (on Rohit continuing to captain India in Tests), the selectors need to have among themselves. So, two years hence, whether Rohit is going to be a part of the team as the captain, I don’t know. They need to have a word with Rohit and chart a course for the Indian team on how they want to go ahead (in terms of Test captaincy),” Gandhi told IANS.
With India hosting the 2023 ODI World Cup, the ‘Hitman’ is set to captain India in the 50-overs format, but with Hardik Pandya leading the T20I side, it remains to be seen what the selectors have in mind for Rohit.
Giving Captaincy To Either Ajinkya Rahane Or Ravichandran Ashwin Can Be An Interim Solution: Devang Gandhi
Gandhi, further opined that Indian team management needs to groom a new captain and given that it’ll take time to happen, interim captaincy could be handed to Ajinkya Rahane who led India previously during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in 2021 with much success, or even Ravichandran Ashwin could be considered.
“It could be an interim thing, to be honest. Because by chance, if Rohit is not going to lead the side, then who possibly is going to lead the team? Then, that (giving captaincy to either Rahane or Ashwin) can be an interim solution and, in the process, you can groom someone else who can be a future captain under these guys,” he added.
“We already have that in place – Hardik doing in T20Is while Rohit is doing that in Tests and ODIs. I won’t be surprised if that happens in future,” the 51-year-old stated.
With split captaincy becoming more common, both Australia and England have garnered benefits by dividing captaincy duties between two players.