Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar has expressed his opinions regarding India’s next test captain who can take over from Virat Kohli who recently resigned from the role after his tenure for more than 7 years. Gavaskar believes that Rohit Sharma shouldn’t be an automatic choice for the next test captain.
Notable that Rohit Sharma has already been appointed India’s ODI and T20I captain. But he is recovering from an injury, KL Rahul will lead India in 3-match series against South Africa. Gavaskar feels that Rohit has too many fitness issues as he is likely to miss many tests for India which won’t give any stability to India’s test team.
“No board would want that its captain’s hands should be tied”- Sunil Gavaskar
Notable that Rohit Sharma missed two tests in Australia last season while he missed two test matches against New Zealand as well as he opted for Test and again as the team was all set to travel to South Africa, he was ruled out for the series due to a hamstring injury. Gavaskar compared him with Sri Lanka’s Angelo Mathews as the all-rounder who missed many matches in his career due to injury.
“The problem with Rohit is that he has fitness issues. So you need a player who remains fit and is available for all matches. If you remember, Sri Lanka’s Angelo Mathews had the same issue with a hamstring. And with that, when you try to run fast or take a quick single, the injury resurfaces,” Gavaskar spoke on Sports Tak.
“If that is to happen, you may be forced to name someone else captain. So it’s better to pick a player who instead has external injuries. But with Rohit, this cycle of picking up regular injuries is why I am doubtful about him. This is why I feel that only a player who features in all formats should be made captain,” he added.
Gavaskar also slammed the reports which stated that the BCCI put pressure on Virat Kohli to resign from the role.
“No board would want that its captain’s hands should be tied. Sourav Ganguly, the president was a captain himself, so he wouldn’t do anything that would trouble the Indian skipper. Sure, at times there might be a few disagreements but I cannot even imagine something like that happening in Indian cricket,” he said.
India’s next assignment in Test Cricket will be a 2-match against Sri Lanka at home, starting on February 25.
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