“He is a leader” – Sourav Ganguly backs Rohit Sharma to continue as India captain across formats till 2024 T20 World Cup

Former India captain Sourav Ganguly has backed Rohit Sharma to continue as skipper across formats till the 2024 T20 World Cup.

Ganguly lauded Rohit for his leadership in the 2023 ODI World Cup at home as the Men in Blue registered 10 wins on the trot. India, though, failed to cross the final hurdle as Australia won the final by six wickets to clinch their sixth ODI World Cup trophy.

Ganguly further pointed out that T20I skipper Suryakumar Yadav is not a certainty in ODIs after being dropped for the 50-over games in South Africa. In such a scenario, he reckons Rohit should lead the T20I team once he returns from the break.

The reaction came as KL Rahul and Suryakumar Yadav were appointed as skippers for the upcoming ODI and T20I series in South Africa respectively. Rohit has been rested alongside Virat Kohli.

Sourav Ganguly told ANI:

“The problem is that many are not available. Surya is T20 captain, Surya is not a certainty in one-days. They have a different captain in one-days in KL Rahul and Test match obviously, Rohit wants to play."

He added:

"But as I said, once Rohit is back playing all formats, he should be the captain of India because he has done so well in the World Cup. And he is a leader, so I expect and presume that he will continue as captain till the T20 World Cup.”

Interestingly, Rohit and Kohli have not played a single T20I since the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia. Amid Hardik Pandya’s injury, Suryakumar is leading the ongoing five-match home series against Australia.

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India squads for South Africa series ft. Rohit Sharma

India’s squad for Tests: Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan (wk), KL Rahul (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Mohd. Shami*, Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Prasidh Krishna.

India’s squad for 3 T20Is: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav (C), Rinku Singh, Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan (wk), Jitesh Sharma (wk), Ravindra Jadeja (VC), Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Deepak Chahar.

India’s squad for 3 ODIs: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Sai Sudharsan, Tilak Varma, Rajat Patidar, Rinku Singh, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (C) (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mukesh Kumar, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Deepak Chahar.

India tour of SA schedule

December 10: 1st T20I in Durban

December 12: 2nd T20I in Gqeberha

December 14: 3rd T20I in Johannesburg

December 17: 1st ODI in Johannesburg

December 19: 2nd ODI in Gqeberha

December 21: 3rd ODI in Paarl

December 26-30: 1st Test in Centurion

January 3-7: 2nd Test in Cape Town