The 16-member squad for the West Indies tour has been announced by the selectors and many eyebrows were raised on the non-selection of Sarfaraz Khan but one decision that was liked by many was the appointment of Ajinkya Rahane as the vice captain of the test team. Ajinkya Rahane was out of the Indian squad for quite some time due to his poor form but he played domestic cricket and reinvented himself in the IPL 2023 while playing for Chennai Super Kings.
However, some former Indian cricketers including Sunil Gavaskar were not happy with Ajinkya Rahane being appointed as the vice-captain because with this, India loses the chance to groom a young cricketer as a future captain. Though the selectors tried to groom a youngster but KL Rahul’s poor form, Jasprit Bumrah’s injury and Rishabh Pant’s car accident left the selectors with no suitable option. There is no denying the fact that age is not in Rohit Sharma’s favor and he will be able to play for maximum 1 or 2 years and the Indian team management has to come up with a solution otherwise captaincy will be a big problem in future.
During an interaction, Sunil Gavaskar states that he doesn’t find anything wrong in the appointment of Ajinkya Rahane as the vice-captain of the team but then an opportunity has gone lost to groom a youngster as the future skipper.
Little Master also picks three names whom he feels can succeed Rohit Sharma as the skipper of the Indian team, the first name that he has given is of Shubman Gill, the youngster who has been in sublime form and has played some really great knocks across all the formats. The second name is of Axar Patel as Sunil Gavaskar feels that Patel is getting better with each match that he is playing and the third name that he has taken is of Ishan Kishan but only after he gets permanent in the squad.
What do you think of Ajinkya Rahane’s appointment as the vice-captain?
