India captain Rohit Sharma is set to miss the first Test of the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 due to personal issues, and the biggest concern circulating around this was the player who would captain the Indian team in his absence from the game.
Head Coach of the men's team Gautam Gambhir, in a press conference on Monday, November 11, stated that the designated vice-captain Jasprit Bumrah is going to lead the side in when Rohit Sharma is unavailable.
"Bumrah is the vice-captain, so obviously he is going to be the captain in Rohit Sharma's absence," said Gambhir at the presser in Mumbai.
Bumrah is the vice-captain, so obviously he is going to be the captain when Rohit Sharma is not there: Gautam Gambhir #BGT
— चिरकुट ज़िंदगी (@Chirayu_Jain26) November 11, 2024
KL Rahul can bat in the top-order: Gambhir
Gambhir further stated that the availability of Rohit for the remaining series is not yet out in public, and will be confirmed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) before the tour commences. This has given rise to yet another concern regarding the strongest contender for the opening position when the senior opener is not in the team.
Meanwhile, the head coach also mentioned that dynamic wicketkeeper-batter KL Rahul is among the many options Indian team has for the opener's slot if Rohit Sharma is unavailable.
"KL Rahul can bat in the top order, he can bat at 3, he can play at 6 - so you need a lot of talent to do all these jobs & he keeps in ODIs - Imagine how many countries have players like KL who can open the batting and can bat at No. 6 as well? So I feel if need be, he can do the job for us, especially if Rohit is not available for the first Test match," Gambhir added.
India squad for Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25:
Rohit Sharma (captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper), Sarfaraz Khan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Dhruv Jurel (wicketkeeper), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah (vice-captain), Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar
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