File photo of Rohit Sharma© AFP
There was a lot of speculation regarding India’s squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup 2024 but there was never any doubt over Rohit Sharma‘s appointment as the captain as the announcement came back in February. The BCCI showed their trust in Rohit as the captain but the decision was met with a small amount of criticism. There were discussions about the BCCI committing too early on the captaincy choice and the conversation heated up when Mumbai Indians decided to replace him with Hardik Pandya in IPL 2024. However, former India cricketer Irfan Pathan believes that Rohit is the best leader that India have right now and he is perfect person to lead India in the T20 World Cup 2024.
“As far as captaincy is concerned, he is the best leader you have. We always talk about the players, but leadership is a totally different thing. We saw what happened in this IPL with quite a few captains; it’s not easy. Captaining a side in cricket still holds great value and this is why we always talk highly about Mahendra Singh Dhoni. He has been rated highly by the entire world for the reason that it’s such a tough job, and he made it very simple. And after Mahendra Singh Dhoni, when test matches came, Virat was your best captain ever, the way he took the team in front,” Irfan said on Star Sports.
Pathan added that Suryakumar Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya and Rishabh Pant will all be in fray for captaincy once Rohit decided to step down from his position.
“So the leadership was there for the world to see how he was making an impact in Test cricket. But when it comes to recent white ball cricket, you can’t look beyond Rohit Sharma. He is your best leader, even with the bench strength considered. In the future, they will be keeping an eye on Suryakumar Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah as far as captaincy is concerned.”
“Now we have Hardik Pandya as the Vice Captain, Rishabh Pant is also there in your leadership role group if he gets going because he was there in the leadership role before he got injured. So there are three or four guys who are ready, but Rohit is the number one,” he concluded.
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