Aakash Chopra expresses outrage at BCCI's snub of Rishabh Pant for Duleep Trophy captaincy

Former India National Cricket Team batsman Aakash Chopra has been left baffled by the decision made by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) not to appoint the champion wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant as the skipper of one of the teams in the upcoming Duleep Trophy competition.

Rishabh Pant is one of the most talented players going around in the Indian circuit and he is regarded as one of the best wicketkeeper-batsmen in the world. Pant is part of India's scheme of things in all three formats of the game and he was recently part of India's T20 World Cup win as well.

Pant's numbers in the T20I cricket have been ordinary, but he has played some crucial cameos for the team. Meanwhile, his numbers in the 50-over cricket are good but the best version of him has been seen in the longest format of the game where he has emerged as one of the top batters of the Indian team.

Rishabh Pant is also the captain of the Delhi Capitals in the Indian Premier League and was part of the leadership group in the Indian cricket team before his horrific car accident.

Despite all that, he wasn't picked as one of the captains in the upcoming Duleep Trophy competition. The BCCI announced the squads for the tournament on Wednesday, and Shubman Gill, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Ruturaj Gaikwad, and Shreyas Iyer were picked as the captains of A, B, C, and D teams, respectively.

Rishabh Pant was included in Team B and he will be playing under Easwaran. This hasn't gone down well with the cricketer-turned-commentator Aakash Chopra, who questioned if Pant is no longer a captaincy candidate of the Indian team in Test cricket as well.

"Rishabh Pant is not a captain. He has been selected for Abhimanyu Easwaran's team. He is playing under Abhimanyu Easwaran's captaincy, which is absolutely okay. However, is Rishabh Pant not even a candidate for Test captaincy? I am a little surprised," he said in his YouTube video.

The best avatar of Rishabh Pant you have seen is as a Test cricketer - Aakash Chopra

The former India player Chopra further spoke about the success of Pant in red-ball cricket and elaborated:

"I am not aligned with this personally because the best avatar of Rishabh Pant you have seen is as a Test cricketer. He is the only wicketkeeper in the history of Indian cricket who has scored centuries in South Africa, England, and Australia in Test matches."

"Who else has done that? No one has. The way he plays in Test cricket and scores runs consistently, personally, in my opinion, he was a captaincy candidate. However, Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shreyas Iyer, and even Abhimanyu Easwaran are captains, but Pant is not a captain, and that is a huge takeaway, in my opinion."

Aakash Chopra added that he is quite curious to know about the new head coach's opinion on Pant as the skipper. He stated:

"A new era has started. So I will be very curious to know what Gautam's opinion is with regard to Rishabh Pant the captain. When the ODIs started (against Sri Lanka), he didn't play the first two matches, KL Rahul was playing, but Pant came in the last match."

Meanwhile, the Duleep Trophy 2024 is all set to be played from September 5 in Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh, and M Chinnaswamy stadium, Bengaluru.