Shock in store for Team India in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024? Captain Rohit Sharma likely to miss one of the first two Tests against Australia, scheduled to take place in November 2024.
Reports suggest that Rohit has intimated the BCCI of a personal reason for missing one of the first two Tests.
“There isn’t any complete clarity on the situation. It is understood that Rohit has intimated to the BCCI that there is a possibility that due to a pressing personal matter, he might have to skip one of the two Tests at the beginning of the series,” a BCCI source told PTI on condition of anonymity.
If Rohit is unavailable, then here are some of the good options that can lead the team in his absence:
Bumrah is the obvious replacement for the batting stars, given the exposure he has gained over time, and he ranks high in the team hierarchy after Rohit and Kohli. He is a proven match-winner like his Australian counterpart Pat Cummins. He had captained India once in Test cricket against England at Birmingham in 2022 when Rohit contracted COVID-19 and hence can be considered as an option again.
Shubman Gill can be the future leader of the Indian team in the footsteps of MS Dhoni passing on the captaincy baton to Virat Kohli. Therefore, it might be a good time to present him with the opportunity in the longest format of the game. The young cricketer has some experience of captaincy during India’s tour of Zimbabwe and the 2024 Duleep Trophy. With the support of experience-based cricketers like Kohli and Rahul, it might turn out to be one way to gamble in the future for the team.
The wicketkeeper-batter has shown his worth to the Test team, and, in the future, he could be considered as a potential skipper to get him some captaincy experience. Earlier, Pant led Delhi Capitals in the IPL and also led Indian Team for a five-match series against South Africa in 2022. It will be interesting to note how he pans out for this position mainly because the team still needs to settle on a more permanent skipper as Rohit Sharma gets into the twilight stages of his career.
He will be the easy choice if Rohit fails to play, for Rahul has been holding fort quite effectively as stand-in skipper across all formats since 2022, leading India to three Tests-two wins against Bangladesh and one loss against South Africa in Johannesburg. With such consistent performance on the field as a captain, especially in franchise cricket, Rahul will look solid to take on this role.
For most fans, it would be great to see him back as the Test captaincy. Under his stewardship, India was transformed into an attacking cricket team against even the strongest of the opponents around the globe. And despite all these improvements seen from Indian cricket since the day when Virat Kohli said goodbye to captaincy, he is going to attract excitement about himself in Australia, such being a stalwart and witnessing tremendous changes in the Indian side after he was no more the captain.
