India Test Captaincy: The humiliating defeat in the WTC Final 2023 against Australia has triggered a Test Reboot in India Cricket Team. The first in the list could be captain Rohit Sharma. On the wrong side of 35, Rohit’s last Test series as the captain is likely to be India Tour of West Indies. After the IND vs WI series, selectors will discuss a new captaincy choice before South Africa tour.
Although out of form, Rohit can prevent that situation if he rakes in significant amount of runs against West Indies. Rohit will lead Indian in the two-Test series in the West Indies. Following that, he is likely to sit with BCCI and decide on his future in the longest format.
“These are baseless stuff that Rohit will be removed from captaincy. Yes, whether he will last the whole two-year WTC cycle is a big question as he would be nearly 38 when the third edition ends in 2025,” a senior BCCI source in the know of things told PTI on conditions of anonymity.
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Unless Rohit takes an extended break and miss the two-match Test series, he will lead India in the Caribbean. However, the BCCI brass and the national selection committee will be under pressure to take a tough call if he fails to notch up at least one big knock either at Dominica or at Port of Spain during the second Test (July 20-24).
“As of now, I believe that Shiv Sunder Das and his colleagues will have to take a call after the two Tests and looking at his batting form.”
In fact, the BCCI works very differently from other sporting organisations. In the Indian board, those in power believe that you don’t take decisions when the criticism reaches a crescendo.
“After West Indies, we have no Tests till December-end when the team travels to South Africa. So there is enough time for selectors to deliberate and take a decision. By then the fifth selector (new chairman) will also join the panel and a decision can be taken,” he added.
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‘Rohit Sharma wasn’t keen on India Test Captaincy‘
However, Rohit wasn’t very keen on taking up the Test captaincy mantle from Virat Kohli when he quit captaincy after series defeat in South Africa. Struggling with injuries, Rohit didn’t know whether his body would hold or not. Instead, Sourav Ganguly and Jay Shah, the President & Secretary of BCCI had to convince Rohit on taking up the responsibility.
“The two top men at that time (former president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah) had to convince him to take up the role once KL Rahul failed to impress as a captain in South Africa,” the source said.
Will Rohit Sharma take Test retirement after Windies tour?
Save a classy 120 against Australia on a challenging Nagpur track, Rohit hasn’t exactly scored the kind of runs that is expected from a player of his caliber.
Since Rohit took over Test captaincy in 2022, India played 10 Tests and he missed three — one in England due to COVID-19 and two in Bangladesh due to split webbing.
He scored 390 runs in 7 Tests and had an average of 35.45 in 11 completed innings with a single hundred and no other score above 50.
In that same phase, Virat Kohli played all 10 Tests, scoring 517 runs in 17 innings with 186 against Australia at Ahmedabad being his best.
Cheteshwar Pujara in the same phase played eight Tests and scored 482 runs in 14 innings with two unbeaten knocks at an average of 40.12.
But one needs to factor, scores of 90 and 102 came against a weak Bangladesh attack.
The selectors know that in the next three years, all three big players on the wrong side of 35 can’t constitute the top-order of India and hence tough calls will be required, looking at future.
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