Legendary Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar said on Saturday Rishabh Pant could be the ideal candidate to lead India in Test cricket after Virat Kohli decided to quit as captain. Kohli surprised the cricket fraternity with an unforeseen decision to give up captaincy of the senior team at the January 15 Tests.
Speaking to India Today’s consulting editor Rajdeep Sardesai, Sunil Gavaskar said he was impressed by the way 24-year-old Rishabh Pant is able to take on the responsibilities as Test captain and highlighted the success Mansoor Ali Khan has achieved Pataudi took over as India’s captain at a very young age and went on to incredible success.
Virat Kohli took to social media on Saturday to announce his decision to leave the Test Captain. It came a day after India lost a 3-match Test series to South Africa in South Africa. Kohli ended his 8-year tenure as Test captain during which he emerged as India’s most successful skipper in the game’s longest fort.
Rohit Sharma was recently named vice-captain of the Indian Test team but he was not part of the recently concluded 3-match streak in South Africa. Rohit took over after Ajinkya Rahane was fired from the role for losing form.
Also read: India’s most successful test captain Kohli resigns: 40 wins, 68 matches
In Rohit’s absence, KL was Rahul Kohli’s deputy in South Africa and the Karnataka batter even captained India in the 2nd Test in Johannesburg when Kohli was out with a back spasm.
Pant has never managed the senior team but Gavaskar believes he will be auto-selected in all three formats and selection will be looking for someone of his caliber to lead the Test team.
“As far as the selection committee goes, there will be quite a debate over who should take Indian cricket forward. First of all, it should be someone who is automatically selected for all formats of the game. Once that’s done, it will be a lot easier,” Gavaskar said.
“If you ask me, I’m still staying, I would consider Rishabh Pant to be the next captain of India.
“One reason only, just like Rohit Sharma got the Mumbai Indian captaincy when Ricky Ponting resigned, look at the change in his batting afterwards. Suddenly the responsibility of being captain caused him to convert those beautiful cameos of the 30s, 40s and 50s into hundreds, 150s and 200s.
“I think this sense of responsibility given to Rishabh Pant will help him score many more of those wonderful hundreds he scored at Newlands,” he added.
WHY RISHABH PANT?
Gavaskar explained why the burden of captaincy can be handled by someone as young as Pant in Test cricket.
“Yes, I say that. Tiger Pataudi was captain in adverse circumstances at the age of 21 when Nari Contractor was injured. Look what he did after that. He took over the captaincy like a duck into the water. I think what we’re going with Having seen Rishabh Pant captain the Delhi Capitals in the IPL I believe he has the ability to take Indian cricket forward and make it a very exciting team to watch,” he added.
Virat Kohli took over from MS Dhoni as India’s midway Test captain during a Test series in 2014-15 after the latter retired from the game’s longest format. Kohli helped India regain first place in the ICC Test Rankings and reach the final of the inaugural edition of the World Test Championship in 2021.
Under Kohli, India never lost a Test series at home and won their first-ever Test series in Australia.
However, Kohli’s form has come under scrutiny over the past two years. The Indian captain, who scored a brave 79 in the Cape Town Test, has not scored an international hundreds since November 2019.
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