After some controversial months for Indian cricket, Virat Kohli and his men gave their fans something to cheer about after their historic 113-run win over South Africa in the first Test at the SuperSport Park in Centurion.
His maiden win at Fort Centurion allowed him to end 2021 on a high in a winning year for the Indian Test team. But, a day later, the announcement of India’s 18-man ODI squad by chief selector Chetan Sharma once again caused a stir.
After missing the Test, the injured Rohit Sharma was also ruled by the ODI series. But, it was India’s ODI captaincy for the three-match series that raised eyebrows. Despite Kohli’s presence in the line-up, the Indian selection committee relied on young KL Rahul to lead the line against the Proteas.
While some questioned the latest development, former Pakistan captain Salman Butt did not see anything wrong in the decision. In fact, appreciating the approach of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, Butt explained the rationale behind the selectors’ call.
“Virat Kohli will not lead this team any further. And, since he is no longer going to captain the team, they (management) will pick the vice-captain as the stand-in captain, who can lead the team in future. And captained the IPL as well,” the former Pakistan opener said in response to a fan’s query on his YouTube channel.
Recalling the great MS Dhoni era, Butt pointed out that Team India has been following the same pattern of grooming youngsters for captaincy over the years. He said, “The pattern that Indian cricket is following has been this. Whenever the opportunity comes, they give the responsibility to the youngsters to test them. So, I think this is a good opportunity for KL Rahul. “
“We saw it even during MS Dhoni’s time. Whenever India were against smaller countries, he would hand over the captaincy to the youngsters and the team would win,” he added.
Apart from handing over the captaincy to Rahul, the Indian selectors also decided to name pacer Jasprit Bumrah as the vice-captain for the ODI series against South Africa. Besides this, out-of-favour opener Shikhar Dhawan has also been called back for the three-match ODI duel, which is scheduled to begin on January 19.