Hardik Pandya gives heart-winning reply to being Rohit Sharma's potential successor in 2026 T20 World Cup, says 'There is a lot of...'

Rohit Sharma-led India's cricket team is riding high after their T20 World Cup 2024 title triumph. However, after all the celebration Team India will be planning for the future to maintain their dominance in world cricket with several upcoming tournaments. The World Test Championship final is next year, followed by the Champions Trophy in 2025, and then another T20 World Cup in 2026. While India's established players like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli can handle the longer formats, they both retired from T20Is after the T20I World Cup 2024 win. This creates a leadership vacancy for the T20 team.

The selectors have a few strong candidates to consider for captaincy, including Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav, and Shubman Gill. Among them, Hardik Pandya seems to be the frontrunner. He has experience leading India in bilateral series and has been a successful captain for the Gujarat Titans in the IPL.

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After India's victory in the T20 World Cup final, Hardik Pandya was asked by reporters on Saturday, June 29 if he saw himself as a potential successor to Rohit Sharma as captain for the 2026 World Cup. However, Hardik avoided giving a direct answer. Instead, he chose to focus on praising the current captain, Rohit Sharma, and Virat Kohli.

"There is a lot of time for 2026. I am very happy for both Rohit and Virat...two giants and legends of Indian cricket thoroughly deserved this. It has been so amazing playing with them for so many years. We all will miss them but at the same point, this is the best farewell we can give them" he said.

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India kicks off their post-World Cup journey with a three-match T20I series in Zimbabwe starting July 5. This will be a fresh-faced team, with Shivam Dube being the lone player retained from the World Cup squad. Young batsman Shubman Gill will get his chance to lead the side. Hardik Pandya could potentially rejoin the squad for the following three T20Is against Sri Lanka later in July. This will be followed by a three-match ODI series against Sri Lanka in August. This ODI series will serve as preparation for the upcoming Champions Trophy, and will likely feature India's established players returning to action.

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