Before the rescheduled fifth Test against England in Edgbaston, Birmingham, which begins July 1, Rohit Sharma testing positive for Covid-19 created an issue for the Indian team as to who will captain the side in case he fails to recover in time.
India decided to fly in Mayank Agarwal on Monday as a cover for Rohit as an opener. However, if Rohit doesn't recover in time, Virat Kohli can't be a bad option to lead India, felt former England off-spinner Graeme Swann.
Swann claimed that current England captain Ben Stokes wouldn't mind if India's skipper Virat Kohli led them in Birmingham because it would provide the home captain the chance to compare Kohli's leadership with that of Joe Root, who led England when India visited this country last year.
Answering to a Hindustan Times query during a media interaction organized by Sony Sports Network, Swann said, "You could say why not let Virat Kohli finish off the things he started and sort of have a final hoorah. Whether Virat would want to do that, I don't know. I don't think England will really mind. Maybe, if you think about Ben Stokes... He would quite like Virat Kohli to be captain then he could directly compare to how Joe Root's team played against Virat Kohli's."
India hasn't named a designated vice-captain for this 'fifth Test' against England, which is taking place nearly a year after it was postponed due to Covid-19 concerns. The series was halted with the Indian team taking a 2-1 lead under Kohli’s leadership.
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While Kohli, who is India's most successful Test skipper, is still a possibility, it is improbable that he would accept the position, since he had resigned willingly from his job following a 1-2 Test series loss to South Africa earlier this year.
India is now left with only two or three reasonable choices. Jasprit Bumrah is the first, as he was named vice-captain for the home series against Sri Lanka in KL Rahul's absence.
Rishabh Pant, who recently captained India in a five-match T20I series against South Africa, is the obvious alternative. The wicketkeeper-batter's captaincy experience gives him a potential advantage against Bumrah.
Pant has experience leading Delhi in the Ranji Trophy as well as the Delhi Capitals in the IPL and recently captained India in T20Is as well.
Swann concurred that considering Pant for the position of leader could not be a terrible idea, but he quickly added that he expected to see Rohit lead India on Friday after getting healthy.
"We saw a lot of the New Zealand players getting Covid but they recovered really quickly so I'm hoping Rohit would do the same and lead India," he added."England won't be too worried about who is India's captain. They would be looking to put as much pressure as possible on the Indian batting unit and bowl them out. When we used to play against the Indian team, they had some great names, we always used to worry about how to get them out cheaply, it was never about who is captain," added Swann.
(Sony Sports Network inputs)
