‘If They are Thinking Beyond Rohit Sharma, I Think Virat Kohli..’: Ex-Chief Selector’s Bombastic Take on Test Captaincy

After India’s defeat to Australia in the World Test Championship (WTC) final 2023, captain Rohit Sharma’s future in red-ball cricket has been questioned by many experts. With Rohit having celebrated his 36th birthday recently, he is entering the fag end of his career, and thus there has been speculation regarding who could be handed the captaincy in red-ball cricket as India prepare to kick-start their journey in the WTC 2023-25 cycle with the upcoming two-match Test series against West Indies.

Former BCCI chief selector MSK Prasad has thrown Virat Kohli’s name in the fray for Test captaincy,  citing the example of Ajinkya Rahane who was recently appointed vice-captain for the West Indies Test series following his return to red-ball cricket via the WTC final.

While Rohit is the designated captain across all three formats, Hardik Pandya has been captaining the T20I team with BCCI looking to manage the workload of Rohit and Virat, neither of them have been named in the squad for the five-match T20I series against the Caribbean side.

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However, Pandya doesn’t play Test cricket, and therefore, it remains to be seen whether Rohit will continue to lead the red-ball team or if the BCCI will make a change in guard.

MSK Prasad however feels if the selectors are indeed planning to replace Rohit, then Virat might just be the ideal choice given his track record.

“Why not Virat Kohli? When Ajinkya Rahane can come back and become the vice-captain, then why not Virat Kohli? I don’t know what the mindset of Virat is on captaincy. In case selectors are thinking beyond Rohit, I don’t know whether they are thinking but if they are thinking beyond Rohit, then I think Virat can also be an option,” Prasad told Khelnow.

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When further pressed about the possibility of Pandya being handed captaincy in the two limited-overs formats, Prasad remain coy.

“I don’t know if I can answer this question. I don’t know the mindset of the selectors. Usually the mindset of the selectors should be now with the WTC cycle it should be a clear cycle, that’s how the mindset should be,” he said.