In a surprising take that’s got the Indian cricket fans talking, Anil Kumble and Sanjay Manjrekar think Jasprit Bumrah – not the young gun Shubman Gill or Hardik Pandya – should be India’s next ODI captain. The former India coach dropped this bombshell during a recent cricket discussion during the ongoing ICC Champions Trophy, and honestly, they made some interesting points. However, it also took many of the fans by surprise, considering Bumrah has a lot of injury issues.
Jasprit Bumrah an automatic choice after Rohit?
There’s no denying that Rohit Sharma is in the twilight of his career. He had a horrible Test season last year and ended up dropping himself despite being the captain. Meanwhile, many say that his white-ball series might be over following the ICC Champions Trophy as well. Talking about the future captaincy options, Anil Kumble asserted that Jasprit Bumrah is an automatic choice. He kept in mind the fact that the format is getting extinct, and thus why Bumrah should be looked at as a captaincy choice.
“I think Shubman should certainly—he’s already in the leadership group, and eventually, he’ll get to that captaincy, whether it is immediately after Rohit leaves one-day cricket or if Bumrah comes in, which is the automatic choice for both Test match cricket and the ODI format because you hardly play ODIs now. I think Bumrah will become the natural choice, but Shubman won’t be far behind,” Anil Kumble said to ESPNcricinfo.
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Manjrekar also bats Bumrah to take reigns from Rohit
Sanjay Manjrekar, who was with Kumble during the show shared similar sentiments. Manjrekar feels that India have had a long vision to see Bumrah as the captain. When Rohit wasn’t available for the opening BGT Test, it was Bumrah who led the pack to a famous win in Perth. In the meantime, Gill had a mediocre series, scoring 93 runs in 5 innings.
“I’ve not actually given it a thought, so it’s a difficult question to answer because I want to just look at all the pros and cons. I thought when he was made vice-captain when Rohit Sharma was supposed to be on the tour of Australia, that India learned that he’s not going to be the vice-captain and Bumrah was made the vice-captain. I think that was an excellent choice because Bumrah deserved it more than Shubman Gill did, and eventually, how the Australian series panned out, you could see Shubman Gill really struggled to make a mark, and Bumrah was in a league of his own,” he added.
“I’ve started thinking, I think Bumrah should get that offer first. And whenever—forget about Bumrah’s fitness, whether he’s going to be fit—he doesn’t have to captain every one-day match that India plays. When he’s available, I think Bumrah should get that privilege,” Manjrekar said.
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