Indian World Cup winner Sunil Gavaskar believes that the Indian selectors and team management have missed the trick to groom a youngster as the Indian captain for the future starting with the next World Test Championship cycle. Indian team has named Ajinkya Rahane as the deputy for Rohit Sharma in the West Indies tour.
India suffered a humiliating 209-run loss against the Pat Cummins-led side in the World Test Championship final, as he could not inspire the team for the ICC title after 10 years long years.
With many experts and fans believing that the India team should try to groom the next set of youngsters for leadership positions as Rohit Sharma is on the wrong side of his 30s, they named Rahane as the Vice-captain of the Test Team.
In an interview with Sports Today, Sunil Gavaskar feels that the Indian selector has missed the opportunity to groom a youngster for the leadership position for the forthcoming years, as they need to look up to the youngster, who can lead the Indian team in the future.
“There is nothing wrong in having him [Ajinkya Rahane] as the vice-captain, but a missed opportunity to groom a young player. At least, tell a young player that we are looking at you as a future captain. So, he starts to think as a future leader,” Sunil Gavaskar said.
Former Indian opener believes that Shubman Gill and Axar Patel has got the potential to lead the team in the future, as giving the responsibility would help the youngster to think more about the match situations and also added that Ishan Kishan can also be another option if they cement his place in the playing 11 for the forthcoming series.
“One is Shubman Gill and the other is Axar Patel [as future captains] because Axar comes in leaps and bounds, he just gets better every match. Giving him the responsibility as vice-captain will make them think. So, these are the two candidates in my view,” Gavaskar said.
“If there are others, somebody like Ishan Kishan, once he cements his place in the team. He can come in the reckoning as well,” Sunil Gavaskar added.
Young Indian opener Shubman Gill has made a name for himself in all three formats of the game, as the youngster has shown the ability to play under different conditions of the game.
The right-handed opener would be well-groomed as the Indian skipper going forward and Axar Patel has grown from strength to strength in the last two years and could be another option for India in the future.