WI vs IND: 3 Players who can lead India in 4th T20I if Rohit Sharma is ruled out

Rohit Sharma might have shattered Virat Kohli’s record of hitting the most number of sixes by an Indian T20I captain in the third game against the West Indies at St Kitts on Tuesday, August 2, but his fitness has once again let him down just when the Indian selectors as well as the team management look to finalize the Asia Cup and the T20 World Cup squads.

The incident happened during the Indian run chase when Rohit attempted a ferocious shot on the on-side and ended up hurting his lower back. Sharma looked in deep discomfort and after a long chat with the physio, decided to leave the field. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) went on to clarify that the captain was being monitored by the medical team and are yet to provide an update on his status.

As of now, it remains to be seen whether the injury would rule Rohit out of the remainder of this series or even next match for that matter and in case he is able to take no further part, here are the three candidates who can be India’s stand-in captain for the next match.

3 Players who can lead India in Rohit Sharma’s absence:

1. Rishabh Pant

Rishabh Pant helped India get past the finish line in the last game with an unbeaten 33 runs off 26 balls. While the wicketkeeper-batter has been consistent in Tests and One Day Internationals, that has not been the case in the shortest format yet as he has been blowing hot and cold in the last couple of months.

As far as his captaincy experience is concerned, Rishabh was the stand-in captain of the Men in Blue in the absence of Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul during the home T20Is against South Africa which was tied at 2-2. Apart from that, he also led the Delhi Capitals in the last two editions of the IPL.

DC made it to the playoffs and finished third in 2021 while they had to contend with a fifth-place finish in the 2022 season. Therefore, Rishabh Pant might be one of the captaincy options for the fourth T20I against the Windies.

2. Hardik Pandya

Hardik Pandya who had taken a break from international cricket after last year’s T20 World Cup staged a remarkable comeback in the IPL 2022 where he led the new entrants Gujarat Titans to their maiden title triumph. He also made his individual performances count by starring with both bat and the ball scoring 487 runs from 16 matches and registering match-winning figures of 3/17 against the Rajasthan Royals in the final.

Hardik had also led India to a 2-0 T20I series win over Ireland in June this year and now has ample amount of captaincy experience to lead the Men in Blue from the front in the shortest format.

More importantly, he can also play impactful knocks in the middle-order and can chip in wickets with his medium-pace. Therefore, Hardik Pandya is a potential candidate for India’s T20I captaincy should Rohit be ruled out of the next game.

3. Bhuvneshwar Kumar

The last two years have been very hard for Bhuvneshwar Kumar as his career was marred with injuries that even saw him walk off the field on a couple of occasions. This has also sidelined him from the Indian Test team. However, after he made a strong comeback in IPL 2022 where he registered 12 scalps to his name from 14 matches, the UP cricketer has regularly been featuring in India’s white-ball setup.

Moreover, the senior pacer has been picking up wickets consistently in all the bilateral series that have been played in the last two months which is indeed a thing to rejoice for the selectors ahead of the two major tournaments this year.

With 20 wickets in 15 innings in T20Is this year, Kumar seems to be getting back to his prime form and he could also be India’s captain for the next encounter. The pacer was the vice-captain of India during the away limited-overs series against Sri Lanka last year and has also led the Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL on a few occasions.