After Mumbai Indians’ (MI) IPL 2020 triumph, many cricket pundits including former opener Gautam Gambhir have said that Rohit Sharma should replace Virat Kohli as India’s white-ball captain.
However, Gambhir’s ex-Delhi teammate Aakash Chopra doesn’t see a change in captaincy of the Indian team.
Chopra also wondered if Rohit would have won five IPL titles if he was leading the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) franchise instead of Kohli.
"Gautam Gambhir believes that it is the nation's misfortune if Rohit Sharma is not made the Indian T20I captain because he is the most successful captain in the IPL," said Chopra in a video shared on his Facebook page.
"But I have a question, that if Rohit was given the RCB team, which is there with Kohli, will he have won two, three or four out of the five titles MI have won?" he added .
Rohit Sharma was initially not named in the Indian squads for the upcoming tour of Australia on fitness grounds. After recovering from the hamstring injury, he led MI to their fifth IPL title on November 10.
Later, the selectors changed their minds and picked Sharma for the four-match Test series against Australia, starting December 17. But they didn't select him for the white-ball series that preceded the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
"Rohit as a captain is outstanding, I love him to bits but can the Mumbai Indians' success story be equated with India? That is my question. Just because Kohli's team does not do well, does it mean that is Kohli's fault," said Chopra.
On occasions when Kohli has opted out of a series, it is Rohit who has taken over the leadership duties and achieved good results for India.
"They cannot make him the captain now however much you may try. I know it is not fair; I know it is tough. But this is what it is. It cannot happen now as there is a simple reason for that," Chopra stated.
"First of all, he is not going now, he is not even fit. There is a separate mystery going on there regarding when he will get fit. If he is fit on the 10th, why is he not fit for the 27th. Things are topsy-turvy at the moment," he further remarked.
Chopra said he doesn't see a change in India captaincy as of now.
"There are not too many T20 matches at the moment. Let us wait for some time, let us be cool, he cannot become the captain now. Kohli is the captain currently and I don't feel that there is going to be a captaincy change in this team now," he said.
(With IANS inputs)
