Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul to replace Rohit Sharma as captain in white-ball formats: Report

Team India is soon going to have a new permanent captain in T20Is. Rohit Sharma's tenure as the T20I captain came to an end with the victory in the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 last month.

After leading India to their second T20 World Cup title and first since 2007, Rohit announced his retirement from the shortest format of the game. For the ongoing series against Zimbabwe, Shubman Gill has been given the responsibility of leading the side.

With most of the first-choice players busy playing in the T20 World Cup, the selectors picked a youthful side for the Zimbabwe tour and handed the captaincy responsibility to Gill. The other players in contention to replace Rohit Sharma are Hardik Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav. Both the players had led the team in the T20I last year when Rohit was not playing.

Pandya was the preferred choice while Suryakumar led the side only when the allrounder was sidelined with an injury. Pandya was also the vice-captain of the team in the T20 World Cup and played a huge role in India's triumphant campaign, impressing with both bat and ball.

Team India's new T20I captain:

According to a report in the Times Now, Hardik Pandya is the favorite to replace Rohit as India's new T20I captain. The report stated that Pandya will be leading the Indian team in the forthcoming tour of Sri Lanka. As per the same report, India will also have a new ODI captain for the tour as Rohit is likely to be rested for the series.

In his absence, KL Rahul is set to lead the team in the 50-over format. It is also an indication that the selectors are seeing Rahul as the next ODI captain of the team.

"Hardik Pandya is all set to lead the Indian team in the T20 format after Rohit Sharma's retirement. He's unlikely to be rested for the upcoming series vs Sri Lanka. In ODIs, KL Rahul will lead the Indian team in the absence of Rohit Sharma as BCCI believes he makes his runs in the longer format," top sources within the BCCI told the news outlet.

Meanwhile, the BCCI announced Gautam Gambhir as Team India's new head coach on Tuesday (July 9). The former India opener's first assignment as the head coach will be the tour of Sri Lanka that gets underway later this month.