When he announced on Wednesday that Rohit Sharma, not Hardik Pandya, will captain India into the T20 World Cup in the West Indies, BCCI secretary Jay Shah appeared to put an end to the rumours surrounding India’s captaincy dilemma.
“We won hearts in the Ahmedabad 2023 World Cup final, despite not winning the title after ten straight victories. “At the Stadium event in Rajkot, I want to promise you that in 2024 (T20 World Cup), under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma, in Barbados (venue for the final), we will hoist the Indian flag.
“We were going to let Rohit continue forward because he was captaining (in previous formats) and he returned for the Afghanistan series,” Shah continued.
“To whom else can we assign the captaincy if Hardik sustained an injury
during the 2023 ODI World Cup?” inquired Shah, indicating who would take over as captain in the event that the all-rounder sustains an injury during the 2024 T20 World Cup.
He remarked, “We can’t question much about Rohit Sharma after he led the team to 212/4 against Afghanistan in the third Twenty20 International.”
“As I mentioned, we won 10 games in the ODI World Cup, so he (Rohit) has the ability. Though it is a necessary part of the game, we did not win the championship. Whoever plays better wins, according to Shah.
According to Shah’s comments, Rohit will be leading the team now that he’s back in the T20I fold following the disastrous 2022 T20 World Cup series against Afghanistan.
In Rohit’s absence, Pandya had been captaining India in the shortest format and had captained the team in the majority of the T20I series following the 2022 World Cup.
Pandya is currently recovering from an ankle injury he sustained against Bangladesh during the ODI World Cup last year. He hopes to be fully recovered in time for the newest Indian Premier League season, in which he will captain the Mumbai Indians in lieu of Rohit.
In the 2024 T20 World Cup group stages, India will face co-hosts the United States, Pakistan, Ireland, and Canada.
