Indian captain Rohit Sharma will likely to miss the first or second Test match against Australia which is scheduled to start from November 22. The Indian skipper reportedly mentioned that he is trying to sort out some personal matter and if not resolved he may opt out of the first game but he has also mentioned that as of now it is just intimation to the board he has not said that he is not available.
In that case, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) selection committee and board will wait for final confirmation before announcing the squad.
Soon after Rohit's report of missing the Australia Test, the fans and cricket experts started speculating who would lead the team in the absence of Rohit. There were speculations that Virat Kohli will lead again and there were some speculations that young batter Shubman Gill or Rishabh Pant will lead the squad. In a general scenario if the captain misses any clash then the skipper's deputy the vice-captain leads the team but the BCCI has not announced any vice-captain for the side since the T20 World Cup 2024.
Now, the cricket board announced the squad for the upcoming three-Test match series against New Zealand and Jasprit Bumrah was announced as Rohit's deputy in the home Test series against BlackCaps. Now, BCCI made it clear that Bumrah will lead the side if Rohit Sharma misses out on any Test match in Australia.
Bumrah has performed the role for India in the past when he was the vice-captain in the two-Test home series against Sri Lanka in March 2022. Later, he served in the position in the two-Test tour of South Africa in 2023-24 and then in the five-Test series earlier this year against England.
Bumrah has also led India once in the one-off Test in England in 2022 when Rohit was forced to sit out after having tested positive for Covid-19.
India Test squad for the New Zealand series
Rohit Sharma (capt), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Sarfaraz Khan, Rishabh Pant (wk), Dhruv Jurel (wk), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Jasprit Bumrah (vice-capt)
Travelling reserves: Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Mayank Yadav and Prasidh Krishna
