Xtra Time Web Desk : Virat Kohli on Saturday dropped a bombshell as the Delhi batter stepped down as the Test captain of the Indian cricket team after the series defeat against Proteas. Kohli, the most successful Indian Test captain, took to Twitter to make the mega announcement.
Since that Kohli announcement then there has been a lot of speculations about who would be Virat’s successor in the longest format of the game. And now legendary former Team India batter and selector Dilip Vengsarkar has put forward his opinion on who he thinks should be the next skipper in Tests.
In a recent interview with the Times of India, Vengsarkar said, “I would appoint Rohit or Ashwin as a stop-gap captain and groom the future captain. Right now, you need somebody with captaincy experience and an assured place in the Test side. Rohit and Ashwin have established themselves in Test cricket. Pant, Rahul, or Shreyas (Iyer) need another year before they’ll be ready for the job. Pant has proved his mettle, but needs to work on his shot-selection. Till then, either of them can be asked to captain India in the white-ball format, and be the vice-captain in Tests. That ways, they’ll get to observe and learn how to lead the Indian team,”
In the interview, Vengsarkar also opened up about how he groomed MS Dhoni before handing him the Test captaincy during his tenure chairman of selectors and added, “We wanted to give some more time to Dhoni before he took the Test captaincy. He was already the white-ball captain, and we wanted him to learn a few things by following Kumble closely. Kumble led India superbly in that period. It has been caused over the years by the selectors’ lack of vision in grooming a captain for the future. Like we groomed Dhoni, they just haven’t identified the right man to replace Kohli as a captain. I just couldn’t understand why Shikhar Dhawan was named as the captain of India’s tour of Sri Lanka last year.”
Kohli replaced MS Dhoni as the full-time captain in the 2014/15 season amidst the away series against Australia after Dhoni decided to quit the Captaincy. He won 40 out of 68 Tests as a captain and it was under him that India became a mighty force and dominated every team at home.