With Rohit Sharma likely to be appointed India’s new T20I skipper, batting legend believes KL Rahul can be made his deputy and be groomed as the potential next full-time captaincy material for India.
Gavaskar gave his opinion on the captaincy front after India’s contemporary all-format captain Virat Kohli decided to relinquish his post from the shortest format of the game on Thursday citing workload concerns going forward.
Talking on Sports Tak, former Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar lauded the BCCI for “looking ahead” to the future:
“If India are looking to groom a new captain, then KL Rahul can be looked at. He has performed well. Even now in England, his batting was very good. He has been performing well in IPL and 50-overs cricket as well at the international stage. He can be made vice-captain.”
An indispensable part of India’s ODI and T20I outfits in the last couple of years and a Test batsman who stood rejuvenated recently in England, Rahul has played 40 Tests, 38 ODIs and 49 T20Is for India in his career so far.
In T20Is, the elegant right-hander has struck 1,557 runs at an average of 39.92 and strike-rate of 142.19 with two centuries and twelve half-centuries. Importantly, Rahul has had some captaincy experience under his belt via the IPL where he has been captaining the Punjab franchise since last year.
While Punjab Kings have enjoyed mixed results only under Rahul’s leadership, he has been topping the run-charts. The 29-year-old made 670 runs in IPL 2020 and has struck 331 runs in IPL 2021 so far.
Indications are that Gavaskar’s call for Rahul to be appointed the next T20I vice-captain would come true. Those following Indian cricket closely would remember, India asked Rahul to fill in as skipper during the T20I series in early 2020 against New Zealand when Rohit Sharma, stand-in captain in the absence of a rested Kohli, hurt his hamstring and couldn’t take the field in the second half.
