Rohit Sharma should be handed Test captaincy, feels former India skipper Mohammad Azharuddin

Former India skipper Mohammad Azharuddin feels that Rohit Sharma should be handed the Test captaincy as he is the best in all formats. “If he is your No. 1 player in all formats, then what is the problem? I feel seeing 5-6 years ahead is a long time. You should definitely look forward but need to see immediately as well. Just to look forward, you cannot give to an inexperienced player, which might cause a problem.

“I feel Rohit Sharma is a good player and can be a very good captain. Whatever experience I have and whatever cricket I have played, I feel the captaincy should be given to Rohit only. He might play cricket for another two or three years, he might play more as well but his fitness will be very important because his hamstring becomes weak repeatedly,” Azharuddin was quoted as saying by India News.

Azharuddin reckoned that Rohit’s presence in the Test series could have made a huge difference in South Africa.

“His absence in this Test series also became an advantage for South Africa because he is an attacking player, plays in an attacking fashion as an opener as well,” he said.

Appointing @RishabhPant17 the Vice Captain of the test team and grooming him for the job would be the best thing to do in my opinion,in the interim having someone like @ImRo45 or @ashwinravi99 lead for two years and then hand over to Pant who is an all format player would be best — Parth Jindal (@ParthJindal11) January 18, 2022

Meanwhile, stand-in skipper KL Rahul on Tuesday (January 18) said India did ‘some phenomenal things’ under Virat Kohli, who has raised the bar for everyone in the team during his seven-year tenure at the helm. In the absence of Rohit Sharma, Rahul is leading the team in the three-match ODI series against South Africa, starting here on Wednesday.

“Look, Virat like I said under him, team India has done some phenomenal things, we won series outside of India, which hadn’t been done before. We have gone to every country and won a series, so he has done a lot of things right and he has already set a standard for all of us and team India,” Rahul said during a virtual press conference on the eve of the first ODI.

(with agency inputs)