The Board of Control for Cricket in India announced three different captains across three formats for India’s tour to South Africa in December. BCCI were forced to take the decision after India captain, Rohit Sharma, requested to be rested for the white ball leg of the tour.
Hence, Suryakumar Yadav will be leading India in the 3-match T20I series starting December 10, Sunday. KL Rahul will take over the captaincy duties for the 3-match ODI series that follows the T20Is. Rohit Sharma will be back with the side as the Test captain for the 2-match series, starting December 26.
Former India cricketer Irfan Pathan is not in favour of split captaincy and India having separate captains across the different formats of the game. While speaking on Star Sports, Irfan Pathan reckoned that split captaincy shouldn’t happen in Indian cricket team’s culture.
“This could be a sign for the future, which I am not a big fan of. There has been talk for a long time about whether we can do split captaincy. It’s true that workload management has been done here and that is why you are seeing such big squads and different captains. It’s clear that Rohit Sharma had to take a break from white-ball cricket, so you are not seeing him there,” Pathan said.
“You are seeing him as the captain for Test cricket. However, you might see these things going forward. You might even see different coaches for different formats. I believe it’s better if it doesn’t happen in our culture,” the former cricketer further added.
Rohit hasn’t led India in the T20Is ever since their loss to England in T20 World Cup 2022 semi-final. Hardik Pandya, who is India’s T20I vice-captain, has been leading the team for a year.
He is not part of the series against South Africa as the all-rounder is still recovering from the ankle injury that he suffered against Bangladesh during the ODI World Cup 2023.
Rohit, along with Kohli, had a spectacular run in the recently concluded ODI World Cup. The two senior players led India to the final of the tournament and were the top run-getters with 597 and 765 runs in 11 innings respectively.
The duo requested a break from the ODIs and T20Is after a gruelling World Cup campaign, hence BCCI announced three different captains across the series against South Africa.
