Not Rishabh Pant Or Hardik Pandya! Sehwag Backs 24-Year-Old Star To Become India Captain After Rohit Sharma

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posted on 4 months ago — updated on 1 second ago

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After leading India to the T20 World Cup title in Barbados last month, Rohit Sharma announced his retirement from the shorest format of the game.

Rohit Sharma created history in Barbados on June 29 by becoming the third Indian captain in history to win an ICC trophy. Under Rohit’s leadership, India defeated South Africa by seven runs in the T20 World Cup 2024 final to end India’s 13-year wait for a World Cup trophy. After helping India become the T20 World Cup champion once again after 17 years, Rohit announced his retirement from the shortest format of the game.

In his absence, Shubman Gill was appointed as India’s captain for the five-match T20I series against Zimbabwe, which starts on Saturday (July 6), and a new captain will formally take charge of India’s T20I team from the Sri Lanka series onwards.

Ahead of the start of the first India-Zimbabwe T20I in Harare, former Indian opening batter Virender Sehwag backed BCCI’s decision to appoint Shubman as India’s captain for the Zimbabwe tour and said that the 24-year-old right-handed batter is an ideal candidate to become India captain after Rohit decides to call time on his career.

During a discussion on the Cricbuzz show, the 2007 T20 World Cup and 2011 ODI World Cup winner said the right-handed top-order batter will play in all three formats of the game for India for a long time.

“I think Shubman Gill will play all the formats for India in the future. He had a brilliant year in 2023 in Tests, ODIs, and T20Is. He was unlucky not to be a part of the T20 World Cup 2024-winning squad. But I think it’s the right decision because, when Rohit Sharma takes retirement from Tests and ODIs, Shubman Gill seems to be the right choice for the captaincy. So, I think the selectors have chosen the right captain in the form of Shubman Gill,” Sehwag stated.

Gill, who made his international debut for India in 2019, was in red-hot form last year. He finished as the leading run scorer in ODIs and also became the youngest batter to score a double century in ODIs. He was unlucky to miss out on a place in India’s T20 World Cup 2024 squad but travelled to the West Indies and the USA with the team as one of the four reserve players.