In a recent interview with Star Sports, former Indian cricketer turned pundit Deep Dasgupta made a bold claim about captaining India for the upcoming edition of the ICC T20 World Cup in June in the US and Indies. Westerners. Dasgupta believes that Rohit Sharma will be the one to lead the Indian team in place of Hardik Pandya, who is currently recovering from an ankle injury sustained during the group stage of CWC 2023.
Pandya has found it difficult to return to competitive cricket as his ankle injury is causing him too many problems. Every time his return is announced, new setbacks continue to block his path. After his absence was confirmed in the 3-match T20I series against Afghanistan, the BCCI announced Rohit Sharma as captain.
And that is the main reason why Deep Dasgupta believes that Hardik Pandya will have to wait a little longer to captain India in a major tournament. He emphasized on the fact that captaincy plays a much bigger role in the shorter format as compared to the longer formats (ODIs and Tests).
He cryptically attacked Pandya by naming Rohit Sharma ahead of Hardik Pandya, believing that the former is not well suited to lead the team in an ICC tournament as of now.
“The important thing is that this format (T20) is captain-based. The importance of the captain in this format is not as crucial in other formats. So in a way, it can be assumed or probably said that it is almost certain that Rohit Sharma will lead India during the T20 World Cup because if Hardik was leading the team, then the BCCI could have looked for another captaincy option in the T20 series against Afghanistan. But when you have already named Rohit captain of this series, I feel it is almost certain that he will lead the team in the World Cup.” – said the Profound Dasgupta.
Dasgupta backs Virat Kohli to score 500 runs in IPL, while Rohit Sharma will play a different role
Deep Dasgupta believes that Rohit Sharma will be the one to lead India in the 2024 World Cup.pic.twitter.com/6vaijuHGs4
– Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) January 10, 2024
Deep Dasgupta was also asked about the importance of the upcoming edition of IPL for both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. Dasgupta stated that his performance in the IPL cannot decide his future given his enormous size and contribution to the Indian team.
But Dasgupta also claimed that Kohli will surely score at least 500 runs in IPL 2024, stating that he can do so even in his worst season. He also said that it will be interesting to see how Rohit Sharma will operate for Mumbai Indians in a season where he will not be captain for the first time since 2013.
Meanwhile, India’s 3-match T20I series against Afghanistan starts from tomorrow and the opening match will take place at Mohali Cricket Ground in Punjab.