After Announcement of India’s 15-member team for the T20 World Cup, the most discussed topic was Hardik Pandya being made the vice-captain. KL Rahul was the vice-captain in the T20 World Cup last year. When Rohit took a break from the T20 format, Hardik took over the captaincy of India’s T20I team against New Zealand, West Indies and Sri Lanka.
Indian cricket is now considering Hardik as the best choice in white-ball formats looking forward for future and to prepare Rohit’s successor. But, there were some concerns about Hardik’s vice-captaincy, as he was out of the Indian team since October and his form was also not very good in IPL 2024. But, Ajit Agarkar cleared all the doubts. He said that Hardik becoming the vice-captain was always a part of the process and there was no discussion on it.
During a Press Conference, Ajit Agarkar said, “No, there was no talk about becoming the vice-captain. You want everyone to be in good form. The good thing is that he has been able to play for MI in all the games, and we still have a month and a little time. We know he is doing this and hope he improves his form further. No one can replace him. He gives balance to the team, and gives Rohit the option to play different combinations. Thankfully, his performance in the IPL has been good so far.”
T20 World Cup 2024
Right now, Rohit is playing under Hardik due to the Captainship change in MI. Rohit Sharma is a senior player. But this change is not bad, Rohit said. He explained that it was not a problem for him to go from captain to player and then back to captain.
Rohit said, “Look, this is a part of life. Not everything goes your way. It has been a great experience. I was not a captain before and I have played under many captains, so this is not new to me. Whatever is, it is, and you go with it and do what is required of you. That is what I have tried till the last month.”
“We have actually in the past, if you have seen, given priority to whatever format it is. Many players were given breaks according to where we are. The focus was on the 50-overs World Cup, due to which we had to miss T20s. Test cricket was the only constant that we wanted to continue playing because we always wanted to play it. That is what we discussed in the selection committee group. Ajit came into the picture later, so he would not have known what happened in the earlier selection meetings.”
