Former India spinner Harbhajan Singh has chosen his candidate for India captaincy in the upcoming fifth Test against England in case Rohit Sharma fails to recover in time and misses the series-deciding encounter which begins in Edgbaston on July 1.
Rohit Sharma recently contracted Covid-19 during the tour game against Leicestershire and has been in isolation since then. The Test squad doesn’t have any designated vice-captain as KL Rahul is injured and will miss the England tour.
While BCCI revealed that Mayank Agarwal has been flown to the UK as a cover for Rohit Sharma, in case the batter fails to recover for the match; speculations are rife on who will captain the Indian team in that scenario.
There are options like Virat Kohli, who stepped down as captain in January this year after losing the Test series in South Africa. Jasprit Bumrah was the Indian vice-captain in the recent Sri Lanka Test series at home and is the prime candidate for the captaincy.
Another player who could captain India is Rishabh Pant given that he has captaincy experience with Delhi in Ranji Trophy, Delhi Capitals in IPL, and recently captained India in a T20I series at home against South Africa.
On Tuesday, the International Cricket Council (ICC) posted a tweet asking fans to name their choice in case Rohit misses the Edgbaston Test.
Former India spinner Harbhajan Singh initially replied with his choice as KL Rahul, before he remembered that the Karnataka lad is not on the tour itself and deleted his tweet.
Afterwards, Harbhajan again tweeted, but this time his choice of captain was fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah. This is a huge endorsement for the paceman, coming from a legendary player who served Indian cricket with distinction for several years.
In case Jasprit Bumrah is handed the captaincy, he will be the second only pacer to captain India in Tests after the great Kapil Dev.
India leads the series 2-1 and could win its fourth Test series on English soil if they manage to win or draw the Edgbaston Test.
