Is leadership door shut for KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant and even Hardik Pandya in Indian cricket?

Following the retirement of veteran batsman Rohit Sharma from the shortest format of the game after India’s T20 World Cup triumph, vice-captain Hardik Pandya was all set to be appointed as the skipper of the team for the white ball series against Sri Lanka. However, in an unexpected turn of event, the team management preferred aggressive batter Suryakumar Yadav over Pandya and he was dully made the skipper of Team India in the T20 format following recommendations by new Head Coach Gautam Gambhir and chairman of the selection committee Ajit Agarkar.

As per sources, Pandya was not appointed the captain of the team due to his fitness issues. Moreover, Pandya was replaced as the vice-captain by young batter Shubman Gill.

This series also marks the return of KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer, who got overlooked in the past few series. Wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant has also found a place in the squad.

Responding to the captaincy issue, Agarkar said that the door is not shut for the former deputies like KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant and even Pandya as far as leadership role is concerned.

“We need to get Pant back playing, that’s the first thing. He’s going to be a key to us as a player; hasn’t had a lot of cricket. We’ll see what he can do. We don’t want to burden somebody again who is just coming back after over a year out of the game. KL has not been part of T20 now for a little while,” said the former pacer.