‘We have a lot of captains in our team’: Gautam Gambhir's deputy ends India vice-captain speculations
2 months ago | 42 Views
The current Indian Test side has three cricketers—Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, and Jasprit Bumrah—who have led the team in red-ball cricket apart from regular captain Rohit Sharma. When white-ball internationals and IPL are added, four more names—Rishabh Pant, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shubman Gill, and Ravindra Jadeja—have leadership experience. The Ajit Agarkar-led senior selection committee, therefore, did not feel the need to name a designated vice-captain for the two-match Test series against Bangladesh.
Ever since KL Rahul slid down the pecking order as far as the future captaincy is concerned, Bumrah has been India's designated vice-captain in Test cricket. That, however, changed with the South Africa tour earlier this year. That was when the selectors decided not to name a designated Test vice-captain of the Indian side. The same was followed for the home series against England and now against Bangladesh.
India's assistant coach, Abhishek Nayar, said they do not need a designated vice-captain as there are plenty of leaders in the team who have captaincy experience at the highest level.
"You've got a lot of captains, ideal captains in this team. The thought process of these youngsters is of a senior player. ..and with the likes of Virat, and Rohit in the dressing room, it just speeds up that process wherein you're learning a lot faster," Nayar told reporters in Kanpur on the eve of the second and final Test against Bangladesh.
India still not sure about Kanpur pitch
India won the first Test by a huge margin of 280 runs on a Chennai pitch that uncharacteristically helped the seamers in the first two days. That gave rise to speculations about the pitch for the second Test. Keeping Bangladesh's spin attack and their batters' familiarity against spin, will the Indian team management opt for a similar pitch to Chennai? The answer is not clear even to Nayar.
Two pitches have been kept ready at the Green Park Stadium in Kanpur. One is the traditional one with black soil, which tends to get slower as the Test match progresses and assists spinners. The other one is like Chennai.
"To be honest, I don't know which surface we are going to play on yet. Both the pitches look pretty good. Kanpur is often known to have good pitches. I am not sure about the bounce yet," Nayar said during the pre-match press conference on Thursday.
"With the conditions and the forecast, it is going to be interesting, when we turn up in the morning, how the conditions are. A lot will depend on that because as you know in Test wicket, conditions can be a huge factor in how the pitch plays.
"It is too early for us to judge and decide or have any sort of thought process on the pitch or the conditions. But we are hoping we come in tomorrow to a sunny day and not an overcast Kanpur," he said adding that all the players are available, fit and ready to go.
