Ravi Shastri, who was team India’s coach from 2017 to 2021, on Tuesday said that IPL 2022 is an opprtunity for the national side to find it’s future captain. The tournament that starts from March 26 will feature eight Indians leading their respective sides. The likes of Hardik Pandya, Shreyas Iyer and Mayank Agarwal will be seen captaining for the first time.
Also read: IPL: List of all purple cap winners
India’s current all-format captain, Rohit Sharma, first led five-time IPL champions Mumbai Indians in 2013. After his success in the cash-rich league, the 34-year-old was given leadership roles in the national team. Shastri praised Sharma as an ‘outstanding captain’.
“Virat is not being captain anymore, but Rohit has also been outstanding especially in white ball. India will be looking at who will be captaining the team (in future) — there is Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul. India will be looking for a solid captain for the future and here is the opportunity,” Shastri said on Tuesday during a press conference organised by Star Sports, the official broadcaster of IPL 2022.
He added that IPL has given many unexpected stars to India.
“… That is the beauty of the IPL, last IPL we saw Venkatesh Iyer, no one had heard of him and by the time it got over he was in Indian team. So you expect the unexpected.”
The former coach also said that the whole country will be closely watching Hardik Pandya and whether he bowls. The all-rounder is yet to play any competitive match post last year’s ICC T20 World Cup in the UAE.
Also read: India beat Bangladesh by 110 runs, keeps semifinals hopes alive
“The whole county would be very closely watching Hardik Pandya in the IPL, we all know what he is capable of,” Shastri said.
“Like Hardik there will be a lot of other players who are knocking at the doors of the Indian team.”
