Former India wicketkeeper Saba Karim believes that Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have that kind of mutual respect to work together even though they will play under each other in multiple formats. Earlier in the month, the BCCI announced that Rohit Sharma would take over the ODI captaincy from Virat Kohli as the selectors wanted one captain in both white-ball formats.
After the T20 World Cup, Virat Kohli resigned from the T20I captaincy citing the workload in all three formats. Though he had the ambitions to continue as ODI captain yet the selectors thought otherwise.
“India hasn’t had this tradition of split captaincy but we have seen former captains playing under new captain”
The former BCCI selector Saba Karim believes that the split captaincy would work fine for India as both (Rohit and Virat) have that kind of camaraderie and can take Indian cricket forward under the guidance of the coach Rahul Dravid.
“I do believe Rohit and Virat have that kind of camaraderie and respect. And they can always fall back on Rahul Dravid for help. This should work quite well for the Indian side,” Saba Karim spoke to NDTV in an interview.
Karim said that split captaincy will also help to manage the workload for the duo as they represent India in all three formats.
“I think this is a wise decision as the workload gets too much at times and more so as India are preparing for World Cups. The T20 one in Australia next year and then the 50-over World Cup in 2023 at home. So, you need to have a fresh mind to offer more to the side,”
Karim also doesn’t see any issue if Virat Kohli will have to play under Rohit Sharma’s captaincy. The former wicketkeeper, who played one Test and 34 ODIs for India, gave the examples of Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid who played under MS Dhoni for quite some time.
“Although we haven’t had this tradition of split captaincy in Indian cricket but we have seen former captains playing under new captains. It has happened in the past for so many years.
“We had Sachin Tendulkar or Rahul Dravid and even MS Dhoni for that matter when he retired from Test cricket, he did play under Virat Kohli in ODIs and T20Is for some time. If the former and the new captain have respect and are able to understand each other for the betterment of the team then I don’t see any issue at all,” said Saba Karim.
India will begin their South Africa campaign with the test series starting on December 26 at Centurion.
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