Indian captain Virat Kohli has already announced last month that T20 World Cup 2021 will be his last tournament as skipper in the shortest format of the game. Mumbai Indian captain and Team India opener is considered favourite to take over from Kohli in T20s and possibly even in the ODIs as well.
Zee News English conducted a poll on social media, where we asked our readers, “Who is the best choice to replace Virat Kohli as India's T20 captain?” with three choices – Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul.
Rohit Sharma emerged as overwhelming favourite and the fan’s choice according to Zee Poll to replace Kohli as T20 captain. The 34-year-old India opener tallied 71.2 per cent of the votes as compared to 14.4 per cent notched up by both Pant and Rahul.
Here are the results of the Zee News poll...
Who is the best choice to replace Virat Kohli as India's T20 captain?#T20 #ViratKohli #T20WorldCup #TeamIndia
— Zee News English (@ZeeNewsEnglish) October 4, 2021
Pant is a street-smart cricketer much like former India captain and CSK skipper Dhoni. He has also managed to prove his captaincy credentials both in India and UAE at the IPL 2021 as DC are currently in second position on the points table – level on 18 points with CSK and have already booked their playoffs berth.
Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit has had a modest season with the bat and the five-time IPL champions are unlikely to reach the playoffs since they are struggling in 7th place with just 2 more matches remaining. The MI opener is also 10 years elder than Pant – 34 to 24 and many believe that Pant could be a long-term solution for India.
Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar wants Pant to be named vice-captain of the T20 side as well. “I would also keep Rishabh Pant in mind because he has been really impressive in the way he has led a star-studded Delhi team and the bowling changes that he has been making in the T20 format, using (Anrich) Nortje and (Kagiso) Rabada in such a clever manner that actually shows a street-smart captain, and you always want a street-smart captain who can read situations and act immediately. So yes, KL Rahul and Pant are the two guys I would look at as vice captains,” Gavaskar was quoted as saying.
