‘He's ready in the wings to take that job’ – Ravi Shastri backs Rohit Sharma to take over as India’s T20I skipper

Ravi Shastri, whose tenure as Team India’s head coach ended on Monday, reckoned that Rohit Sharma is the apt candidate to replace Virat Kohli as the skipper of the national T20I team. On November 8, Kohli captained the Men in Blue for the last time in the 20-over format as his team ended their T20 World Cup 2021 campaign on a positive note.

Kohli made sure that India finished the mega event with a hat-trick of wins, although they failed to qualify for the semi-final. Shastri, who served as India’s head coach for four years since 2017, said that Rohit has the potential to succeed as the captain due to his incredible numbers in the Indian Premier League and while acting as Kohli’s deputy in T20Is.

Moreover, Shastri was of the opinion that split-captaincy may not be a bad idea in Indian cricket due to the hassles of bio-secure bubbles in the COVID-19 pandemic. The veteran admitted that staying away from families and loved ones for a prolonged time period may not be easy for cricketers.

I think in Rohit you’ve got a very capable guy, says Ravi Shastri

“I think it’s not a bad thing because of the bubble. The players need to be rotated around and given the space, they need to spend some time with their families, see their parents. When a guy doesn’t go home for six months, he might have his family with him, but if he’s got parents and other family and you don’t get a chance to see them, it’s not easy at all,” Shastri said in the post-match presser.

“I think in Rohit you’ve got a very capable guy; he’s won so many IPLs and he’s the vice-captain of this side. He’s ready in the wings to take that job,” he stated.

Although they crashed out before the semis, Shastri sounded confident that India have a bright future in the offing in the T20 format mostly because of the IPL.

“I think we’ll always have a strong T20 team. We might have not won a World Cup but going forward you’ll continue to have a very strong team because the IPL throws a lot of young players into the mix,” Shastri added.