Rohit Sharma is ready and capable to take over India T20 captaincy from Virat Kohli, says Ravi Shastri

PTI, Nov 9, 2021, 9:57 AM IST

Dubai: Ravi Shastri, who completed his highly eventful tenure as India’s head coach, feels that Rohit Sharma is “ready and capable” to take over the T20 captaincy from Virat Kohli, and sharing the leadership burden isn’t such a bad idea in a post COVID-19 world.

Rohit, who will be taking over T20 captaincy from the New Zealand series, is also being tipped to lead India in the 2023 ODI World Cup and the formal announcement in that regard may happen sooner than later.

“I think in Rohit, you have got a very capable guy. He has won so many IPLs, he is the vice-captain of the team, he is ready in the wings to take that job,” Shastri said during India’s post T20 World Cup campaign media conference, making it clear that at this point, no other candidate is being looked as a potential leader.

He, in fact, welcomed the idea of Rohit leading in shorter formats and Kohli captaining in Tests.

“I think multiple captains is not such a bad thing because of the bubble and so much cricket being played, the players need to be rotated around and given the space they need to spend some time with their families and see their parents.

“When a guy doesn’t go home for six months he might have his family with him but you have parents and other family and if you don’t get a chance to see them, it’s not easy at all, so I think it’s not such a bad thing,” he opined.

Shastri is convinced that despite their indifferent performance in this edition of the T20 World Cup, India will continue to be a very strong T20 team in near future.

“…and as far as the T20 team goes, we will always have a strong team. We might not have won this T20 World Cup but going forward, we will have a very strong team, because IPL throws a lot of young players into the mix, and Rahul (Dravid) will have his own ideas on how to take this team forward. I see this still to be a very good team.”

Lack of bowling options hurt, admits Shastri.

Though in a roundabout manner, Shastri admitted that lack of backup bowling options hurt the team as Hardik Pandya wasn’t fully-fit to bowl his full quota of overs.

“It always helps when you have one or two guys in the top order who can bowl. We had that in the past and unfortunately we don’t have too many now and so that might be the way to go — to ensure that we have a couple of guys who can roll their arms over. Even if it’s four overs between them, that will help,” he said, making his viewpoint clear.

A gap between IPL and T20 World Cup was necessary

Shastri didn’t endorse the common theory that India not playing too many T20 matches as a team was the reason for the debacle.

“The cricket itinerary is so packed that they can do only one thing at a time. At least they played some T20 cricket. I just wish the gap was a little more. that’s it.”

So, did he speak to BCCI brass about the issue? Shastri was dismissive.

“See, that is not my job, first of all. It was already done, that is something I am sure the administrators, not just for India, the BCCI, you know, it’s the others around the globe who will also be looking at it. To ensure before big tournaments that there is a little bit of gap, so that the guys are mentally fresh and ready to play.”

But can any India player, without feeling insecure about his place, could have opted for a rest?

“Absolutely. The communication has been free. We have managed players. You know with the training methods and everything and it’s a …. one thing we were never short on communication, everyone was free to speak, no one was treated as a junior, no senior-junior in this side, everyone had the freedom to express themselves.”

“Emotional”, but leaving this team in a better state.

He did admit that he was indeed feeling “very emotional” having been part of this set-up for close to six and half years.

But does he feel that there’s anything missing? “I don’t look at missing parts. When I took over there were 10 missing parts. Now there are only two,” the straight-talking coach said.