Former India cricketer Ravi Shastri believes that the BCCI should be looking towards the youth while deciding the successor of Rohit Sharma as the captain of the Men in Blue's Test team. Rohit and Virat Kohli's sudden retirements from Test cricket has left the BCCI with a big task in hand as they need to decide India's new permanent skipper in red-ball cricket. They also need to do it before the commencement of the India's five-match Test series against England in June.
Ravi Shastri doesn't want Jasprit Bumrah to be India's Test captain
Shastri, who was India's head coach from 2017-21, firmly opposed the idea of Jasprit Bumrah becoming the next Test skipper, giving the reason that the bowler is coming back after a serious back injury and shouldn't be given the pressure of captaincy.
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"See for me, Jasprit would have been the obvious choice after Australia. But I don’t want Jasprit to be made captain and then you lose him as a bowler," Shastri said on The ICC Review.
"I think he (Bumrah) has to take his body one game at a time. He's coming back now after a serious injury. He'll have played IPL cricket, which is four-over cricket. Now will come the test of bowling 10 overs, 15 overs. And the last thing you want is some pressure on his mind being captain as well," he added.
Bumrah was India's vice-captain in Tests under the leadership of Rohit the past year and also led the Men in Blue in two out of five Tests against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar series 2024/25. However, during his second game as captain, Bumrah was taken off the field due to back spasms as India recorded their third loss of the five-match series in Sydney.
Shastri pointed out that both Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant are ideal to become long-term skippers for India in the longest format. While the former is the captain of Gujarat Titans, the latter is leading the Lucknow Super Giants in the ongoing IPL; season.
“You groom somebody and I would say Shubman’s looked very good. Give him the opportunity. He's 25, 26 years of age, even give him time,” Shastri stated
"There's Rishabh as well. I think these two are the obvious ones I'm looking at because of their age and they have a decade ahead of them. So, let them learn. They've got experience as captains now, captaining their franchise and that makes a difference," Shastri concluded.