Former India bowling coach Bharat Arun believes that Jasprit Bumrah might not be the best candidate to lead India in the longest format. As a fast bowler, he would keep taking breaks to manage his workload, Arun suggests.
Notable that Virat Kohli stepped down from the Test captaincy after the series loss against South Africa. Since then, speculations have been floating around about the possible candidates to take over the job.
Rohit Sharma, who has already been appointed the white-ball captain for India, is the frontrunner to take the role however KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, and Jasprit Bumrah are also other candidates if the selectors go with the split captaincy.
Jasprit Bumrah was named vice-captain in the ODI series against South Africa
KL Rahul made his Test captaincy debut in the South Africa tour when Kohli missed the second test match at Johannesburg due to an upper back spasm. Rahul also captained in the ODI series and Bumrah was named his deputy of the series.
However former bowling coach is not sure if giving the captaincy responsibility would work well for Bumrah.
“Bumrah is somebody who has got a mind to do it (captaincy). But giving a captaincy to Bumrah.. would he be able to sustain all three formats all the time? That’s the question you would have because Bumrah is a bowler who we need to take care of,” Arun spoke to News9.
“He needs to be given sufficient breaks between matches and between series to stay fresh. Taking that into account, I’m not too sure if he can be the captain,” he added.
Comparing the captaincy options, Arun believes that it will depend on the individual’s performance but he would prefer a batter for the role as he would be available for more matches than a fast bowler would.
“If you look at KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer. Between the three of them, any one of them has got the quality to lead the side. It depends on how they are faring at a particular point of time. I would rather prefer a batsman because he can play in all three formats without being rested for any series to take the mantle of captaincy,” said Arun.
India’s next assignment in Tests will be a series against Sri Lanka starting on February 25.
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