With Rohit Sharma failing to recover from his hamstring injury, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) named KL Rahul as the captain for the impending ODI series against South Africa, despite the squad having former white-ball captain Virat Kohli. And while the decision might have raised eyebrows, ex-Pakistan captain Salman Butt hailed the decision and explained the logic behind it.
Answering to one of the queries made by a fan on his YouTube channel, Butt explained that with Kohli removed from the role last month, it was only logical to make a decision for the future and select a leader, albeit as a stand-in option, who can be a possible future captain of the Indian team.
“Virat Kohli will not lead this team any further. And when he is longer going to captain the team, they will pick the vice-captain as the stand-in captain, who will lead the team in the future and also captained an IPL team. I don't see the reason why they will not give him (Rahul) this opportunity,” he said.
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Butt even pointed out that it has been a pattern that Indian team has been following for a long time, something that even happened during MS Dhoni's captaincy where players like Suresh Raina, Ajinkya Rahane and the then-young Kohli was given the responsibility of leading the team during series against weaker opponents.
{{/usCountry}}Butt even pointed out that it has been a pattern that Indian team has been following for a long time, something that even happened during MS Dhoni's captaincy where players like Suresh Raina, Ajinkya Rahane and the then-young Kohli was given the responsibility of leading the team during series against weaker opponents.
{{/usCountry}}“This has been the pattern that Indian cricket has been following. Whenever there is a chance, they give youngsters the opportunity and hand him the responsibility to test him. So I feel this a good opportunity for KL Rahul. We saw this even during MS Dhoni's time, whenever India were up against smaller nations, he used to hand the captaincy to youngsters and the team used to win. So this is their pattern and I feel this is a good way to judge a player by handing him the responsibility,” said Butt.
Earlier on Friday, BCCI chief selector Chetan Sharma explained that Rahul was named the skipper in Rohit's absence given that he is the vice-captain and that he is being groomed as a future leader.
"We are looking at KL Rahul as a three-format player, and he has got good experience of captaincy," he said in an online press interaction. "He has proved his leadership qualities. That is what all selectors think. When Rohit is not fit, we thought KL is the best one to handle the side. We have good confidence in him, and we are grooming him."