Exclusive: Hardik Pandya in line to replace Rohit Sharma as India captain, BCCI to give verdict soon

Things might take a different turn in Indian cricket after their back-to-back fiasco in ODIs and T20Is as BCCI is mulling over to take the captaincy reins from Rohit Sharma and hand it over to star all-rounder Hardik Pandya in the white-ball game.

In an exclusive interaction, a top source told Sports Tak that Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has thought of giving Hardik the responsibility of leading India in the ODIs and T20Is. The source who is privy to this massive development said, “BCCI has this plan and have discussed with him (Hardik). Meanwhile, the all-rounder has asked for some days to respond. Let's see what he thinks of it. No decision has been taken regards with this but yes we are in thought process to give him captaincy of white-ball cricket. Let's see how things goes further."

It will be a bold step from BCCI by all means if Hardik becomes India's white-ball skipper, however, he holds all the attributes to lead the Indian pack as everyone witnessed the glimpse of it when the 29-year-old led the Gujarat Titans to the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 title in their maiden season earlier this year. Cricket experts like Ravi Shastri and Sunil Gavaskar also share the same opinion that the transition will work and sit well for India to have someone young and confident like him leading India in this format.

Hardik's first assignment came when he was handed a task to spearhead the Indian pack on the Ireland tour, which the Men in Blue won 2-0. His prospects of leading India on significant tours are improved by the fact that he was in charge of the squad during the just finished T20I series against New Zealand, which India won by a score of 1-0.

Meanwhile, Rohit took over the T20I leadership after Virat Kohli stepped down following the T20 World Cup in 2021. In the previous 12 months, The Hitman had already broken a number of records. He surpassed Kohli’s mark of 30 games and became the second-most successful Indian T20I captain. He eclipsed MS Dhoni’s previous record for the most T20I victories by an Indian captain in a calendar year. Sharma achieved that feat following India’s triumph over South Africa in the Thiruvananthapuram T20I.

Despite all the transition, India have failed to bag an ICC trophy since 2013 Champions Trophy. Their recent debacle came against Bangladesh where they lost 1-2 in the three-match ODI series. The Rohit-led India also displayed the lackluster show in the just concluded T20 World Cup 2022, where they failed to make the final after suffering an embarrassing 10-wicket defeat at the hands of England in the semifinal.

Managing captaincy duties in ODIs along with T20Is will be a different ball game for Hardik. The decision is yet to be made as the ball is in the star all-rounder's court to respond to BCCI whether he is interested to take the captaincy workload or not.