Along with Hardik Pandya, who recently served as the team's captain during a series against New Zealand, former India cricketer Gautam Gambir has selected Prithvi Shaw, a player for the Mumbai and Delhi Capitals, as the nation's future T20 leader.
Pandya is rumoured to succeed Rohit Sharma as captain of the national squad after leading Gujarat Titans to the IPL 2022 championship.
He led India in T20Is for the first time during a tour of Ireland, which resulted in a 2-0 series victory. In the most recent T20Is in New Zealand, he captained India to a 1-0 series victory.
Following India's elimination from the T20 World Cup after losing to England in the quarterfinal, experts believe Pandya will take over the T20I team.
At a gathering held by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) here on Sunday, Gambhir stated, "Hardik Pandya certainly is in line." But that will be unfortunate for Rohit because, in my opinion, it is unfair to evaluate him based solely on his captaincy during a single ICC match.
Gambhir's remarks about Hardik Pandya are not particularly surprising, but choosing Shaw as a future captain is surprising given that the Mumbai batter has had trouble securing a consistent spot in the various Indian squads since last year.
Shaw has only played four Tests since making his Test debut in 2018, the year after he helped India win the U-19 World Cup. Despite this, Gambhir claimed that Shaw was his choice for captain because Shaw would likely play with a lot of aggression.
"Prithvi Shaw is one I feel can be a very aggressive captain, a very successful captain because you see that aggression in the way a person plays the sport," he said, adding that reports of the "off-field activities" of the batter is for the coach to tackle.
"The reason I've picked Prithvi Shaw, I know a lot of people talk about his off-field activities, but that is what the job of the coach and the selectors are," Gambhir was quoted as saying in media reports of the event. "The selectors' job isn't just to pick the 15, but also to get people to walk the right path."