Former India coach Ravi Shastri has backed Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant as ideal candidates for the test captaincy role after the voids left by senior batters Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.
His decision comes after both have age on their side and already have experience of leading IPL sides.
Shastri feels that Jasprit Bumrah will be a potential candidate for the leadership role, but due to his fitness issues, the pacer should not be given extra responsibilities.
“See for me, Jasprit would have been the obvious choice after Australia. But I don’t want Jasprit to be made captain and then you lose him as a bowler,” said Ravi Shastri on the ICC review.
The selectors have to pick new test captain following Rohit Sharma’s test retirement. India are set to play a five match test series against England which marks the new World Test Championship starting on June 20.
Jasprit Bumrah struggled with a back injury sustained in the final test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy match in Sydney.
He was out of the action for nearly three months, early January untill April and missed India’s Champions Trophy winning campaign.
Bumrah returned to play in the IPL after missing a few initial games and picked 13 wickets in 8 games for Mumbai Indians.
“I think he (Bumrah) has to take his body one game at a time. He’s coming back now after a serious injury. He’ll have played IPL cricket, which is four-over cricket. Now will come the test of bowling 10 overs, 15 overs (in Tests). And the last thing you want is some pressure on his mind being captain as well.”
With Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant are in the 20s, Ravi Shastri feels the board should look at the key factors like age and longevity to decide on the future India skipper.
