If India doesn’t do anything special at the 50-over World Cup, we could see split captaincy – Dinesh Karthik
The Indian management hasn’t taken any official decision on appointing two captains for different formats and veteran wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik believes that the call will rely heavily on how India performs in the upcoming ODI World Cup.
Team India gave a phenomenal performance and secured the recent ODI series against Sri Lanka and New Zealand at home, under the leadership of Rohit Sharma. The hosts clean-sweep both series 3-0 and took the top position in the ICC ODI rankings.
But in the shortest format, all-rounder Hardik Pandya has been driving Team India. Hardik has impressed to be an extraordinary resource as a leader as he drove India to a series win over Sri Lanka, recently.
However, the management hasn’t taken any official decision on appointing two captains for different formats and veteran wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik believes that the call will rely heavily on how India performs in the upcoming ODI World Cup.
“If the case presents itself why not? But right now, it is not right for me to say this for two reasons. One, India is only playing three T20s after this until the 2023 World Cup; they face the West Indies after the IPL. Once that tournament is done, I think we will know exactly where things stand,”
said Karthik on Cricbuzz.
“If Rohit Sharma’s team doesn’t go on to do something special there, we could very well see a chance of split captaincy, and I guess the opportunity will present itself then. Whereas if Rohit goes on to achieve something special, we will all like to think differently and give him a crack at the 2024 T20 World Cup if he is willing to play that,”
he added.
The wicketkeeper-batter proceeded to commend Hardik for his captaincy and expressed that he has done a “phenomenal job” in the T20Is against Sri Lanka.
“For the moment, I do believe that Hardik has done a phenomenal job. A case in point is the T20 that was played against Sri Lanka in Mumbai. That was a great game. Stopping Sri Lanka for 160 was a terrific effort on a day where there was little dew. He showed his captaincy prowess there,”
said Karthik.
Discussing Hardik, the all-rounder is currently leading Team India in the ongoing T20I series against New Zealand, where the visitors whipped the hosts by 21 runs in the first match on Friday.
