Rohit Sharma called time on his Test career on Wednesday. It was a surprising announcement by the right-handed batter, who was the Test captain of the side by the last series that India played in the format. Rohit’s retirement leaves a big void that the Indian cricket team needs to fill. Not only the batter, but India need a captain as well to replace him in the format. The side begins its World Test Championship campaign with a five-match series against England on latter’s home soil, starting June 20. While the selection committee is yet to reveal who would be the leader during the outing, former India player Anil Kumble feels that the team should go ahead with Jasprit Bumrah.
“Maybe just for this series (against England) go with Bumrah, and then see how his fitness is,” Kumble told ESPNcricinfo. “I know it’s not easy being a fast bowler. He’s had injuries, he was on a break after the Australia series, and is only returning in this IPL. But I’d still go with Bumrah.”
Kumble admitted that it will not be possible for Bumrah to play all the five-Test matches. Notably, India’s desperate attempt to feature Bumrah in all the five Tests in the side’s last outing in Australia saw the pacer picking up an injury and missing a fair part of cricketing action. Hence, there is a huge need of a better workload management for Bumrah. “Whenever that happens, the vice-captain comes in and takes over,” Kumble said.
The possible captaincy candidates for India in Test cricket are Jasprit Bumrah, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant. Bumrah captained the side in a couple of Tests during the tour of Australia.
As of now, Rahul and Gill are front-runners due to vice-captain Bumrah’s recurrent fitness issues. Bumrah though can’t be totally ruled out.
Rohit, the man who led India in four ICC tournament finals, winning two of them, is a bonafide legend in the ODIs with more than 11,000 runs and 32 centuries.
He bowed out from Tests as India’s most prolific batter in the second half of his career, overall scoring 4301 runs in 67 Tests with 12 hundreds and 18 half centuries at an average of 40.57.
If a source close to Rohit is to be believed as per PTI, the champion batter had decided on retiring from Tests after India won the Champions Trophy in March.
And though it was known to the men who mattered, the speculation around his future was allowed to swirl in the media by officials who preferred not to come on record.
The selection committee, it is learnt, offered no clarity to Rohit on whether he would make it to the England-bound squad, which is set to be announced some time next week. Rohit, on his part, made it clear to them that he wanted the final call on his career to be his own.
(With PTI Inputs)
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