Just ahead of the Sri Lanka series, India’s newly-named all-format captain Rohit Sharma has said that KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant and Jasprit Bumrah are future captaincy candidates for the country. The trio has been part of India’s leadership group in three different formats for a while now.
In the recent months, India’s leadership group has undergone some major changes as Rohit Sharma has taken over as the captain of all three formats. He was named as the T20I captain last year and made his full-time ODI captaincy debut against the West Indies earlier this month. Now, in two weeks, he will lead India in the red-ball cricket for the first time against Sri Lanka, in Mohali on March 4.
Before the two-match Test series, India will play three T20Is against Sri Lanka, starting from February 24 in Lucknow. While speaking on the eve of the series-opener in a virtual press conference, Rohit said that the three players – KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant and Jasprit Bumrah – are seen as potential captaincy contenders for the future.
“If you talk of Bumrah, KL Rahul and Pant, they have a big role to play in India’s success, they are looked upon as leaders as well. They do understand there is a responsibility on their shoulders, but we do not want any pressure on them as they are critical for us. We just want them to enjoy the game and execute the skills,” Rohit told the press.
Both Rahul and Rishabh are the captains of their respective Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and Delhi Capitals (DC). Bumrah is yet to be part of Mumbai Indians‘ (MI) leadership group but was India’s vice-captain in South Africa in the Test series.
Speaking about India’s workload management, Rohit said, “I am very clear on my mind on how I want to take it forward. Obviously, managing the workload, not just me, but everyone would be the key.”
“We have seen a lot of injuries within our squad, we just need to be careful about what we do with individuals, how we rotate them and how we give them a break. We are trying to manage that, we are trying to put a roadmap on how we move forward.”
“As far as I am concerned, there are no issues, I am looking forward to playing all the games. The workload depends on what happens thereafter, you take it day by day. If there is an opportunity for you to take a break, you take a break. At the moment, it seems to be okay,” Rohit added.
