India’s new all-format skipper, Rohit Sharma, and the selection panel have an eye on the future as well. Hence, they have decided to earmarked three players – KL Rahul, Jasprit Bumrah and Rishabh Pant – who will be groomed to take up leadership roles after Rohit.
KL Rahul is the seniormost player of the trio. Rahul, who is the white-ball vice-captain, captained India in the Johannesburg Test when Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma were injured, and then captained India in the ODI series against the Proteas in Sharma’s absence. Jasprit Bumrah was the vice-captain in the ODI series.
Then Pant was named the vice-captain against West Indies with Rahul out injured and Bumrah rested. Now with Pant rested, Bumrah has been named the vice-captain for the upcoming T20I and Test series against Sri Lanka.
On Wednesday, Rohit said that he’s happy to groom these players in leadership positions.
“I won’t have that much of a role of telling them each and everything. Obviously, they all are mature cricketers. But it’s just that someone needs to be there to help them, guide them in difficult situations. I’ll be more than happy to do that. That is how we’ve grown up, come into the ranks of becoming the captain. We were groomed by someone else. So it’s a natural process,” Sharma said on the eve of the first T20I against Sri Lanka in Lucknow.
He spoke highly of the trio, however, also noted that the players shouldn’t be put under any extra pressure because of the vice-captaincy roles.
“If you talk of Bumrah, KL, Pant, all these guys have a big role to play in India’s success. At the same time, they are looked upon as the leaders as well. So they do understand what they need to do as individuals and at the same time they do understand there is a responsibility on their shoulders. But again we don’t want to put any pressure on these guys, they are very critical to us. We just want them to enjoy the game, come out freely and execute your skills,” Rohit Sharma added.
Rohit Sharma has had a perfect start to his full-time captaincy stint with whitewashed over New Zealand (3-0 in T20I) and then over West Indies (3-0 in ODI and same in T20I). The series against Sri Lanka, too, is expected to produce similar result.
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