Former KKR team director Joy Bhattacharjya has made big claims ahead of the 2024 T20 World Cup. He believes that appointing Rohit Sharma as the captain of the team could hamper the team as the senior batter is not the ideal choice.
Rohit Sharma will captain the Indian team in the upcoming T20 World Cup 2024 to be played later this year in June. After the ICC T20 World Cup 2022, there was no clarity about the opener’s place in the team. He wasn’t part of the team for almost a year.
In his absence, the youngsters got the chance and there was a lot of speculation that he would not play in the 2024 T20 World Cup. However, Rohit Sharma returned to the team in the series against Afghanistan earlier this year and immediately made a statement, hitting a century in the third game.
After this, BCCI secretary Jay Shah confirmed that Rohit Sharma will lead the team in the tournament. Since then, the batsman has looked in ominous condition and is scoring runs in IPL 2024. The opening batsman has hit over 300 runs in the tournament and is among the leading run-getters.
However, Joy Bhattacharjya is not happy with Rohit Sharma leading the team in the T20 World Cup 2024. He believes that the fact that Mumbai Indians have batsmen in the team, with Virat Kohli, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman among the in-form batsmen, Gill must knock down the order. Speaking to Cricbuzz, he explained:
“The decision to appoint Rohit Sharma as India captain for the T20 World Cup may have hampered the team. At this point in time, Sharma is not the ideal choice to lead the team in the T20I format. I have utmost respect for Rohit Sharma and think that he is a great cricketer.
“However, he is not in batting form at the moment. Virat Kohli, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill are currently in better form and are strong contenders for the opening positions. However, since Sharma is the captain, he will open, which means he is one of them.” These in-form players will have to bat further down the order.
As captain I would choose Jasprit Bumrah over Rohit Sharma – Joy Bhattacharjya
Joy Bhattacharjya also made a bold statement and said that he would prefer Jasprit Bumrah to captain the Indian team over Rohit Sharma in the 2024 T20 World Cup. He added:
“I would prefer Jasprit Bumrah over Rohit Sharma as captain because Bumrah’s bowling skills make him an important member of the team. Rohit has achieved everything in cricket but there is one thing he has yet to do and that is win a World Cup. He won the T20 World Cup in 2007 and wants to end his career on a high note, we call it book closing. That’s a great thought.
As the deadline for announcing the squad for the T20 World Cup 2024 is May 1, it is expected that the Indian team for the tournament is likely to be announced in the coming week.