‘He is not in captaincy thoughts’: Shubman Gill snubbed as other young stars tipped to become next India captain

Former cricketer Aakash Chopra has named his contenders for the next Team India captain after Rohit Sharma. The Test series loss to Australia and New Zealand has put Rohit under the scanners as the swashbuckling opener also rested himself in the final Test Down Under after a string of low scores in earlier matches. Jasprit Bumrah stood up to the challenge and led India well in the Perth Test, but a back injury in the last Test on the tour has raised concerns about whether he could be the long-term option considering his fitness concerns. India's Shubman Gill has been pushed down in the pecking order for the leadership role.(AFP)

Chopra picked Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rishabh Pant as the two contenders for the future captain of the Indian cricket team.

"Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rishabh Pant - which of the two can become the captain? It's a beautiful question because, as per sources, Rohit has said that he will manage the team for a few months, but after that, you (the BCCI) can find whoever you want, and since there could be an injury issue with Bumrah, it's your wish," Chopra said on his YouTube channel.

Several reports also suggested that Gautam Gambhir, the current head coach of India, wants Jaiswal elevated into the leadership group after his impressive performance on the Australian tour.

Meanwhile, Chopra offered a short-term suggestion, advising the team management to pick Jasprit Bumrah as captain for the next Test series in England and appoint a vice-captain whom they wanted to groom.

"I had a solution that we should see after six months. If Jasprit Bumrah captains the entire England tour, appoint a vice-captain properly because you have to groom him. Let's be very honest, when we won the T20 World Cup, it seemed like the grooming process was going very well," he observed.

‘Shubman Gill is not coming in the T20 format at all’

He further pointed out that the management did try to elevate Shubman Gill for the leadership role by naming him the vice-captain in the white-ball formats after the T20 World Cup, but things have changed for him now. The 25-year-old was dropped from the XI in the Boxing Day Test and was not picked in the squad for the T20Is against England, which indicates that he has been dropped down in the pecking order for the leadership role.

"Everything looked fine. Shubman Gill was being made the vice-captain. He was regularly being assigned that role and then suddenly Shubman Gill was dropped. So pressure was put on him as to what was happening as he is potentially not coming in the captaincy thoughts and is not coming in the T20 format at all," Chopra elaborated.

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