Former Indian captain Mohammed Azharuddin has said that he doesn’t understand why Rohit Sharma can’t be given the captaincy of India in all formats of the game. Rohit Sharma has already been appointed the white ball captain of India with Virat Kohli being sacked as the ODI captain, but now with Kohli having resigned as the test captain as well, there are debates if Rohit is the right man to be trusted with the leadership in all formats.
There is a school of thought that Rohit shouldn’t be given the test captaincy because he has been specifically brought in as the white ball captain to win the T20 World Cup and ODI World Cup which are scheduled to take place in the next two years and he should focus on that, rather than being burdened with the captaincy of the red ball format as well, but according to Mohammed Azharuddin, it doesn’t really matter.
While talking to India News, Azharuddin said that Rohit Sharma is India’s no. 1 batsman in all formats of the game now and it should be a straightforward call to put him in charge of all three teams because he can easily play cricket for a few more years even though he is already close to 35. In Azharuddin’s view, the only point of consideration might be Rohit’s fitness because he has suffered hamstring injury quite a few times recently.
Rohit Sharma has suffered multiple hamstring injuries in the last couple of years
Rohit Sharma had to leave New Zealand’s tour mid-way at the start of 2020, as he injured himself while playing in the last game of the T20I series and he then got injured again during the IPL which took place later that year in UAE once the pandemic eased. Because of the injury, Rohit could take part in only the last couple of test matches of the Border-Gavaskar series 2020-21 and he has now got injured again ahead of the South Africa tour. With all these injuries related to hamstring, Mohammed Azharuddin thinks this might be a matter of concern.
Apart from Azharuddin, another former Indian player Gautam Gambhir is also of the opinion that it should be Rohit taking charge of the test team because one captain for all formats allows consistency in selection and approach. It remains interesting what BCCI and the selection committee eventually decide, with KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant also being in frame for the leadership roles.
