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Cricket Players'Rohit took break from white-ball cricket... I'm not a fan of it': Pathan strongly opposes BCCI's India call for SA tour
While he does understand the cause of it, Pathan cautioned the selection committee of the future and why it won't be a successful call for Team India.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Thursday announced the squad for all three formats for India's tour of South Africa that begins next week. India are slated to play three T20Is, as many ODIs and two Tests. However, a certain BCCI decision, which so far remained unnoticed, as been strongly opposed by former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan. While he does understand the cause of it, Pathan cautioned the selection committee of the future and why it won't be a successful call for Team India.
With regular captain Rohit Sharma opting for rest from the whit-ball leg of the tour, BCCI picked two different captains for T20Is and ODIs. Suryakumar Yadav has retained his role after leading a new-look Team India to a 4-1 T20I series win against Australia while KL Rahul has been named the captain for the ODI contest. Rohit will however be back for the all-important Test series which begins from December 26 onwards.
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Speaking to Star Sports, Pathan strongly criticised the BCCI's split-captaincy move, saying that it shouldn't happen in Indian cricket team's culture.
"This could be a sign for the future, which I am not a big fan of. There has been talk for a long time about whether we can do split captaincy. It's true that workload management has been done here and that is why you are seeing such big squads and different captains. It's clear that Rohit Sharma had to take a break from white-ball cricket, so you are not seeing him there," Pathan said.
"You are seeing him as the captain for Test cricket. However, you might see these things going forward. You might even see different coaches for different formats. I believe it's better if it doesn't happen in our culture," the former cricketer further added.
With uncertainty over Rohit's future in T20Is and ODIs, and the squad announcement for the South Africa tour revealing is desire to continue his Test career, split captaincy could be a likely move for the selectors.
India, in fact, have been unofficially playing under different captains with Hardik Pandya taking charge of the matters in white-ball since the start of this year, in Rohit's absence, while in 2022, Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan were made in charge of few of the white-ball contests.
