Rohit Sharma likely to continue as captain of Indian Test team, says report

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has reached a consensus to continue with Rohit Sharma as the captain in the Indian Test team for the five-match series against England, beginning June 20. Press Trust of India (PTI) reported that Rohit was not the automatic, consensus choice for leadership, but issues over fitness and a paucity of proven leadership candidates in the upcoming battery of Indian players put Rohit in the prime spot.

Rohit was under-fire to deliver results in the Champions Trophy after the 1-3 defeat in Australia. However, another ICC trophy in his bag has certainly added more weight to his credentials, giving him greater breathing space both as a batter as well as a captain.

But the question remains if the national selection committee will consider success in ODI format while deciding on the more challenging Test format, where the returns have been modest of late.

The team suffered six hard-to-digest defeats in the last World Test Championship cycle.

The new cycle for India will begin with the England series, where the first Test will be played at the Leeds.

“Technically, Rohit remains the Test captain. He voluntarily benched himself from the last Test in Sydney where he explained that a team can’t carry on with multiple out of form batters.

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“After Australia Tests, India haven’t played any Tests and hence there has been no change in Test captaincy. Also Rohit never said he doesn’t want to play Tests,” a BCCI source told PTI on the condition of anonymity.

However, he added that the national selection committee hasn’t yet decided on the England series.

“The selection committee gets a break during IPL. Obviously with all matches televised, they always don’t need to travel unless they have some specific strategy or they want to watch a particular player from up close,” the source added.

“So once IPL starts, the blueprint for England series will be drawn at some point. But (coach) Gautam Gambhir’s view point will have a lot of weightage,” he added.

It is an open secret that Gambhir is a firm believer in current form and if one takes that parameter into account, it would be interesting if the Indian captain enjoys the vote of confidence of the head coach.

Gambhir has always propagated the “team-first” policy and everyone associated with Indian cricket knows that he believes in looking at the bigger picture, which is to prepare the core of the Test team for the next three to four years.

But for any decision to reach its logical conclusion, the head coach and chairman of selection committee Ajit Agarkar need to be on the same page.

(With PTI inputs)