Rohit Sharma was appointed India’s all-format captain last year after Virat Kohli relinquished the T20I and Test captaincy and was sacked as ODI skipper.

While Rohit replaced Virat as captain, India have seen as many as five other players leading the side across formats. The likes of KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya and Shikhar Dhawan have stood in as skippers in the last 18 months with Sharma either getting rested or being unavailable due to fitness issues.

Given that Rohit is now on the wrong side of 30s, batting legend Sunil Gavaskar have suggested the selectors to groom Shubman Gill and Akshar Patel as future Indian captain.

Gavaskar also picked Ishan Kishan as one of the candidates for the leadership role once he cements his place in the national side.

“One is Shubman Gill and the other is Akshar Patel [as future captains] because Akshar comes in leaps and bounds, he just gets better every match. Giving him the responsibility as vice-captain will make them think. So, these are the two candidates in my view," Gavaskar told Sports Today.

"If there are others, somebody like Ishan Kishan, once he cements his place in the team. He can come in the reckoning as well,” he added.

Team India's Test and ODI squad for the upcoming tour of West Indies was unveiled on Friday (June 23), with the selectors making major changes especially in the longest format.

While Cheteshwar Pujara was left out of the Test team, Ajinkya Rahane was named the vice-captain after his successful comeback to the side earlier this month in the WTC final against Australia.

According to Gavaskar, India should have picked a young player for the vice-captaincy instead of Rahane.

“There is nothing wrong in having him [Ajinkya Rahane] as the vice-captain, but a missed opportunity to groom a young player. At least, tell a young player that we are looking at you as a future captain. So, he starts to think as a future leader,” he opined.