Rohit Sharma to captain India in this year's T20 World Cup

Hardik Pandya’s name was doing the rounds in the aftermath of Rohit’s latest failing as a skipper, but it seems like his experience, and the fact that he scored a century against Afghanistan recently, titled the scale in his favour.

Rajkot: Ending weeks of speculation, the Board of Cricket for Control in India’s (BCCI) secretary Jay Shah confirmed that Rohit Sharma will lead the Indian team when they head to the Americas and the West Indies for the Twenty20 World Cup in June. He also revealed that Rahul Dravid will continue to coach the side.  

The Mumbaikar has been at the helm of the last three times the Indian side has lost an ICC event -- the T20 World Cup in 2022, the World Test Championship final in 2023, and most recently, the 50-over World Cup at home. 

Hardik Pandya’s name was doing the rounds in the aftermath of Rohit’s latest failing as a skipper, but it seems like his experience, and the fact that he scored a century against Afghanistan as recently as last month in Bengaluru, titled the scale in his favour. 

“He’s our skipper, we should give him confidence, we should let him relax,” Jay Shah told a small gathering of journalists on the sidelines of an event in Rajkot.

“Rohit was captaining in the past (in other formats) and he came back for the Afghanistan series, which means we were going to let him continue forward.”

“Hardik was injured during the World Cup, who else can we give the captaincy to? There was no doubt. He has done so well since then, he even played that brilliant knock against Afghanistan under those circumstances. We can’t question his ability, can we?”

He remained particularly stone-faced when asked about Virat Kohli’s spot in the side, saying they will discuss the matter when the former skipper returns from his break. 

Shah’s initial announcement came out of the blue as a gathering of cricketers, family and friends was at the Niranjan Shah stadium for its official naming ceremony on Wednesday evening.

The premise of the programme was to celebrate Saurashtra’s domestic titles and felicitate Ravindra Jadeja and Cheteshwar Pujara for their services. 

But it was Shah who stole the show when it was his turn to talk, announcing on the stage first that Rohit would remain captain.