- Friday, April 26, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIA opener Rohit Sharma has found the backing of several former players as the successor to Virat Kohli as the national captain in the T20 format. They have said that the ace batsman has demonstrated his leadership skills in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and is an obvious choice to take up the reins from Kohli.
Kohli, who will turn 34 this November, has relinquished captaincy in the shortest format. The upcoming T20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates and Oman will be last assignment as the skipper. The departing captain has led India in 45 matches, leading to wins on 27 occasions while seeing defeat in 14 games. Two games were tied while two were without results. He averages more than 52 in the format with the highest score of 94 not out. He has played 90 games in which he has scored more than 3,100 runs.
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While the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has shown no urgency to name Kohli’s successor, Sharma is likely to be elevated as the captain. Sharma is the most successful captain in the IPL with five crowns to his credit between 2013 and 2020 (Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bangalore are yet to win their maiden title). In T20 internationals, he has led India in 19 games as stand-in skipper, leading them to win on 15 occasions and lost only four. As a batsman, he has scored nearly 3,000 runs in 111 games with four hundreds at an average of 32.54.
For former India captain and chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar, choosing Sharma as India’s next T20 captain is a no-brainer.
“Rohit deserves to be India’s next T20 captain because he has done well whenever he’s been given an opportunity to lead India,” Vengsarkar told Times of India newspaper on Friday (17).
“In 2018, India won the Asia Cup under his captaincy. Beside that, he’s been an exceptional captain for the Mumbai Indians, having led them to five IPL titles,” he said.
Former India player and coach Sandeep Patil also backed Sharma for the top job.
“Rohit has proved his mettle,” Patil, a member of India’s 1983 World Cup-winning squad, told the same newspaper.
Kohli, who tweeted on Thursday (16) announcing his decision to step down from T20 captaincy, cited his “immense” workload as the reason behind his call but BCCI chief Sourav Ganguly said the decision was made “keeping in mind the future roadmap”.
Former India captain and opener Sunil Gavaskar said while Sharma was the best man to lead India in the 20-over format, India should groom KL Rahul, who leads Kings XI Punjab in IPL, as the future white-ball captain.
“It’s important to think ahead,” Gavaskar told the Sports Tak programme.
“He has been performing well in IPL and 50-overs cricket as well at the international stage. He can be made vice-captain,” the batting legend said.
Former India captain Kapil Dev, who doesn’t believe in split captaincy, was a bit surprised with Kohli’s decision but nevertheless backed him saying he was honest.
