Mohammad Kaif also opined on Rohit Sharma's performance as India's all-format captain.
Former Indian cricketer Mohammad Kaif explained how Indian skipper Rohit Sharma’s thumb injury solved head coach Rahul Dravid’s headache about the opener’s choice for the first Test of the upcoming two-match Test series against Bangladesh, starting on December 14.
Kaif admitted that Rohit's experience and his captaincy skills will be missed against Bangladesh, but the Indian skipper’s injury that he sustained during the second ODI solved Dravid’s headache of choosing the openers, as he can now simply go ahead with KL Rahul and Shubman Gill for the first Test in Chattogram.
Mohammad Kaif was quoted as saying by Sony Sports Network: “If Rohit was there, they would have struggled to pick the top two because Shubman Gill is there and KL Rahul is there. Now that Rohit Sharma is not there, we are sorted, then we can have GIll and Rahul opening for the first Test.”
The former batter continued, “No.3 will be Pujara, four will be Virat Kohli, five Shreyas Iyer, six Rishabh Pant and then five bowlers with Ashwin and the others coming in. Since Rohit is not there, selection will become a bit easier for Dravid.”
On being asked whether Rohit was the right choice to replace Virat Kohli as India's all-format captain, Kaif said: “Rohit has done well since he became captain. Apart from the big multi-nation events like Asia Cup and World Cup. It was the same with Virat. When he was the captain, he was winning all bilaterals so when Rohit became captain people thought we need to win ICC events as there were no trophies.”
He signed off by saying, “That's why people are disappointed. But overall, his record is good. In the World Cup, we won four matches. There are ups and downs. South Africa lost to the Netherlands. England lost to Ireland. India played well, apart from one bad against England. Rohit is a good captain. Still, early days for us to judge how he has done.”