Ravichandran Ashwin says Jasprit Bumrah ‘deserves’ India captaincy

Former bowling all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin on Tuesday, backed ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah as the deserving candidate to take up India’s Test captaincy after the sudden retirements of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.

Ashwin, while talking on his YouTube channel, reiterated that he was unaware that both Sharma and Kohli would retire together before asserting that their simultaneous retirements would create a leadership vacuum in the Indian cricket team.

The 38-year-old then went on to throw his weight behind Bumrah, the most senior player, to lead the inexperienced team.

"I didn't have an idea both [Rohit and Kohli] would retire together," Ashwin said on his YouTube channel. "This will a testing time for Indian cricket, and I'll say this is truly now the beginning of the Gautam Gambhir era.

"The team that will tour England will be a completely new team, a transformed team where Bumrah will probably be the senior-most player. He is obviously one of the captaincy options; I think he deserves the captaincy, but the selectors will take a decision based on his physical capacity.

"Their retirements will definitely create a leadership vacuum. You can't buy experience, especially on tours like this. Virat's energy and Rohit's composure will be missed."

However, contrary to Ravichandran Ashwin’s suggestion, top-order batter Shubman Gill is reportedly the frontrunner to replace Sharma as India’s Test captain despite Bumrah being the vice-captain until the tour of Australia last year.

Bumrah was also the stand-in captain in the series opener and also when Sharma opted to sit out the final Test.

For the unversed, Jasprit Bumrah’s workload management also remains a massive roadblock in his appointment as the India Test captain.