With Virat Kohli slowly climbing up the age ladder, the discussion for future captain is also swarming up. Kohli who is in his early 30’s, gives BCCI a hint on exploring their options and to start grooming the next prospect. Kohli started his captaincy stint in 2014 when he acquired the reigns from Mahendra Singh Dhoni in longer format and later took over the limited over format in 2017.
India’s vice-captain Rohit Sharma, clearly seem the most suitable choice but he too is of the same age, or even older to Kohli.
Former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar spoke on his take on who he sees taking over from Virat Kohli. Gavaskar named KXIP skipper KL Rahul, who is currently 28 years of age and stated that he could be groomed for the role of vice-captain and may later take over the duties of Team India captain.
“There is a great chance for KL Rahul to show that he can score runs when given the responsibility. Secondly, he can show that he is capable of captaining a side and how he moulds his team and extracts effort. If he does that well he can even go on to become the vice-captain of the Indian team,” Gavaskar said on Sports Tak.
“There are still players in the Indian team like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Ajinkya Rahane. But going forward, he can be an option for the selection committee and can also become India’s future captain. So, this can be a huge tournament for KL Rahul as a skipper,” he stated.
Like Gavaskar, former India opening batsman Aakash Chopra too sees great potential in Rahul as he said, “I have hope that his captaincy will be good. Actually, we will get an idea of his captaincy, how he runs the game, what strategies he uses. If we see Kohli and Rohit, they are of the same age bracket and at one time you may feel that they are not captain material anymore,” Chopra had responded to a fan on his Facebook page.
Every captain has to pass on his duties at one point of time, “As they say, a time comes when you have to pass on the baton like MS Dhoni did to Kohli and Kohli will also have to do to someone at some point. When he does that, it is possible that Rahul will be next in line.”