Hardik Pandya and Rishabh Pant ignored as Ambati Rayudu! picks India's future captains

Six-time IPL winner with MI and CSK, Ambati Rayudu snubbed Rishabh Pant as well as Hardik Pandya to pick Shubman Gill and Ruturaj Gaikwad as future India captains. 

Ambati Rayudu, who is currently on commentary duty in IPL 2024 with Star Sports, believes that Shubman Gill and Gaikwad have what it takes to become a National captain. Rayudu hailed both of the cricketers for their skills and drew similarities between them in terms of their style of captaincy, after seeing some of it in the ongoing edition. 

Shubman Gill and Ruturaj Gaikwad: Tale of 2 unexpected captains in IPL 2024 

Both Shubman Gill and Ruturaj Gaikwad became captains this season almost unexpectedly. Gill was handed over the leadership role, weeks before the start of the 17th season of the cash-rich league. The 24-year-old succeeded Hardik Pandya, who had switched his allegiance back to the Mumbai Indians one month before the IPL 2024 mini-auction in Dubai. 

Ruturaj Gaikwad on the other hand was appointed as Chennai Super Kings captain just a day before the 2024 season opener between them and the RCB.

With that, the two future stars of Indian cricket are already being groomed by their respective IPL teams. While Gill is being groomed by Ashish Nehra in GT, Gaikwad is being groomed by none other than MS Dhoni and head coach Stephen Fleming. 

In their debut seasons as captains, the duo have experienced similar seasons. Ruturaj Gaikwad's CSK have also won 4 matches until now and Shubman Gill's GT have also won the same amount of matches by playing one game more.

But Chennai is above GT in the 5th spot because of a better net run rate whereas the 2022 champions went down to 7 with a loss against Delhi last night. 

The finalists of last season require a stretch of matches unbeaten in their final league games so that they can qualify for the playoffs. 

What did Ambati Rayudu say about Shubman Gill and Ruturaj Gaikwad 

While speaking to Star Sports in a recent interview, Ambati Rayudu was asked about the 2 Indian captains in IPL who can captain team India. Rayudu then named Shubman Gill and Ruturaj Gaikwad as the 2 captains to watch out for in the future. The former CSK and MI batter picked Gill and Gaikwad from a strategic point of view. 

Rayudu drew similarities between their captaincy style, claiming both of them are cool, calm, and composed. He also highlighted how influential the roles of Ashish Nehra and MS Dhoni are going to be in their development as captains. And therefore, the 38-year-old claimed that Gill and Gaikwad will become great captains of India shortly.