Former Pakistani legend Shoaib Akhtar has made a unique suggestion to Team India's management, stating that the management should buck the trend of promoting batsmen as the new skipper of the team, and should instead look to groom players such as Jasprit Bumrah to captain the Test team.
After the Test series loss to South Africa, Virat Kohli announced his decision to step down as the Test skipper and since then speculation has been rife regarding who will fill in the shoes of Kohli. While rumour has it, that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will most likely hand over the captaincy to either Rohit Sharma or KL Rahul, Shoaib Akhtar feels otherwise.
Akhtar instead pointed out that giving the captaincy to bowlers worked quite well for Pakistan and there is no evidence to suggest that the move wouldn't work out for India as well.
Speaking to Sports Today, the 46-year-old stated the BCCI should groom ODI vice-captain Jasprit Bumrah and hand over the captaincy to him down the road.
"Why don't you look at fast bowlers as captain. Kapil Dev was a fast bowler, wasn't he a great captain? I don't know why there is this notion that batsmen are more clever than us. For Pakistan, Imran Khan, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis have all been captains," Akhtar stated.
He continued, "A fast bowler always goes for a win. I am not saying that the batters don't but it is a little different. Jasprit Bumrah should be made the vice-captain and groomed for captaincy. Groom fast bowlers and all-rounders. This trend of thinking that only batters can be captain is wrong."
Ahead of the beginning of the ODI series, Bumrah was questioned about him being handed the captaincy upon which he stated that it would be an honour to captain the side, hinting that he is ready to take the responsibility.
"If given an opportunity, it will be an honour and I don't see any player would say no and I am no different. Be it any leadership group, I always look to contribute however I can, to the best of my abilities," Bumrah had said in the press conference ahead of the first ODI.
