‘Gambhir didn’t pitch for Suryakumar...': BCCI official's huge claim on India T20I captaincy

The T20 side of the Indian Team are in the transition phase as soon after they clinched the T20 World Cup trophy, veteran duo Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli alongside Ravindra Jadeja announced their retirement from the T20 format. And, in the senior players’ absence, youngsters won the five-match T20I series against Zimbabwe by 4-1 recently.

However, there are speculations over the new captain as well and a meeting was held between new head coach Gautam Gambhir and the Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee. Hardik Pandya, India’s vice-captain in the T20 World Cup, was the first choice to take over the reins from Rohit Sharma but things changed as now India’s No.1 ranked batter Suryakumar Yadav, and not Hardik Pandya, has become the front-runner as India’s T20I captain as well.

And, he came on the radar of the chief selector Ajit Agarkar and Gambhir at Thursday evening’s selection meeting as well. Gautam Gambhir, however, had an informal call with the BCCI officials and the selection committee on Tuesday evening about the roadmap ahead. It is understood that it was during that call that Gambhir and Agarkar decided to pick Surya’s name as a probable candidate to replace Rohit as the T20I leader as well.

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“Agarkar was clear with his views,” – BCCI official on Gautam Gambhir’s plan

Meanwhile, it is noted that Gambhir did not take Surya’s name directly but he made it clear that he would prefer a captain whose workload management is not a concern as well. With Surya being a white-ball specialist and the best batter in the format after Rohit and Kohli’s retirement, it was a clear pick as well.

“Although Gambhir did not directly pitch for Surya in the call, he made it amply clear that he would want to work with a captain whose workload does not become a stumbling block. Agarkar was clear with his views,” a BCCI official told Hindustan Times.

However, the selection committee is known to be split with some for Hardik Pandya to be appointed captain as he was the World Cup-winning vice-captain. It was also reasoned that Hardik’s performances were not so good in the World Cup after he had a poor IPL as well.

Moreover, Hardik is injury-prone and he was out of action for nearly six months after suffering an ankle injury during the early stages of the ODI World Cup last year as well. However, Gambhir and Agarkar spoke to Hardik Pandya after the meeting on Tuesday to let him know about the latest developments as well.