Rishabh Pant and Virat Kohli.
With Virat Kohli gone, Sunil Gavaskar suggested that 24-year-old Rishabh Pant can be made India’s next Test captain.
- Last Updated:January 15, 2022, 22:07 IST
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Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar said that Rishabh Pant must be named India Test captain hours after Virat Kohli stepped down. Speaking to India Today, he was asked who could be the next in line to succeed Kohli to which he suggested the name of current wicket-keeper batter Rishabh Pant. Gavaskar said whoever gets the responsibility must be an automatic choice in all three formats. With KL Rahul failing in that proposition, and Rohit Sharma having fitness issues, Gavaskar’s answer made a lot of sense. “I would look at Rishabh Pant as the next India captain. And for one reason only, just like Rohit Sharma was given the captaincy of Mumbai Indians, look at the change in his batting after that,” he said.
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“Suddenly the responsibility of being the captain meant that instead of playing those beautiful cameos, he was scoring 100, 150, 200. And that sense of responsibility if given to Rishabh Pant will make him score many of those wonderful hundreds that he scored.”
Kohli Steps Down
Virat Kohli on Friday announced that he will step down as India’s Test captain, a day after his team’s 1-2 series lost to South Africa at Cape Town. Earlier Kohli had stepped down T20I captaincy earlier just ahead of the T20 World Cup. After which BCCI sacked him as the ODI skipper as well. Announcing the news via his social media handles, Kohli wrote, “Every thing has to come to a halt at some stage and for me as Test Captain of India.”
Also Read | Virat Kohli Quits Test Captaincy: End of an Era, And it Ended When He Chose to End it
Kohli’s decision comes after India had lost the third Test match in Cape Town. Earlier India landed in South Africa as the clear favourites to lift the three-match series, instead the team crashed to 1-2 series defeat which saw them losing the second and third Test match with a margin of seven wickets each. With this Kohli also became the only Indian skipper to lose successive Test series in the Rainbow Nation. Earlier in September he had said that he will step down from T20I captaincy just ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup. It was later revealed that BCCI had asked him to rethink as the Board didn’t want multiple captains in limited overs cricket. With Kohli not changing his mind, BCCI was forced to sack him from ODI captaincy. There were reports that Board might sack him if he loses in South Africa. Well, Kohli had outmanoeuvred the Board and opted to resign himself.
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