Saba Karim surprised with Jasprit Bumrah’s appointment as vice-captain for South Africa ODIs

The Indian team is currently in South Africa playing a three-match Test series and they have made an ideal start to the tour with their first-ever win in the format in Centurion. The three Tests will be followed by as many ODIs and the Indian squad for the ODI series was recently announced. KL Rahul was named the captain of the side in the absence of injured Rohit Sharma while Jasprit Bumrah got the nod as the vice-captain.

With many expecting the likes of Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer to take up the vice captain’s role, this did come in as a surprise from the Chetan Sharma-led selection panel. Both these youngsters have had a fair amount of captaincy experience in IPL and have been very impressive laying the stones for the future.

However, Bumrah’s performances in all three formats have been of the highest order continuously for the last few years and was rewarded for the same.

Saba Karim feels Pant should’ve been made vice-captain

Saba Karim being a former national selector does know the importance of naming a vice-captain and he revealed that he did not expect Jasprit Bumrah to be appointed at the position ahead of Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer. He noted Rishabh Pant’s progress behind the wickets in terms of field setting and captaincy tactics and felt the youngster will certainly get his turn in the near future.

“I was extremely surprised, I was not expecting Jasprit Bumrah to be made the vice-captain. I was hoping that Rishabh Pant had more chances to be made the vice-captain because he is also a multi-format player, he plays all three formats. Pant’s performances as captain of the Delhi Capitals have been very good. We are seeing how he reads the match, he has a lot of game awareness,” Saba Karim told India News.

The former selector, however, stated that Bumrah is a talented player before pointing out that he hasn’t led a team at any level so far. “Jasprit Bumrah has the talent, his role is very important for the Indian team but he has not captained anywhere till now. So it is slightly surprising. I was feeling that Rishabh Pant was the first candidate as vice-captain.” he added

Meanwhile, Ravichandran Ashwin has made a comeback into the Indian ODI side after 4 years on the back of excellent performances in recent times while Ravindra Jadeja missed out on the squad due to his injury. Venkatesh Iyer and Ruturaj Gaikwad have also been presented with a chance in the 50-over setup and they will be hoping to make it big.