After Rohit Sharma retired from Test cricket, Ravi Shastri urged a forward-thinking selection process for India's next Test captain, vehemently supporting the idea that youth should take precedence over experience. While strongly opposing the concept of giving leadership to pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, the former India head coach expressed his choice for either Shubman Gill or Rishabh Pant to take charge in a conversation with The ICC Review.
Bumrah led the Indian team in two Test matches during the 2024–2025 Border-Gavaskar Trophy and served as vice-captain under Rohit Sharma during the previous year. Under his captaincy, India won a match in Perth, but Bumrah had to leave the game in the middle because of back pain and the team lost in Sydney.
"See for me, Jasprit would have been the obvious choice after Australia," Shastri said. "But I don’t want Jasprit to be made captain and then you lose him as a bowler."
In light of Bumrah's chronic back issues, which included a nearly three-month absence following the Sydney setback earlier this year, Shastri emphasized that the 31-year-old should not be sidetracked by the demands of leadership and should instead be kept as a strike weapon.
"I think he (Bumrah) has to take his body one game at a time. He's coming back now after a serious injury," Shastri pointed out. "He'll have played IPL cricket, which is four-over cricket. Now will come the test of bowling 10 overs, 15 overs. And the last thing you want is some pressure on his mind being captain as well.”
Instead, Shastri shifted the focus to younger leaders who have longer careers ahead of them, emphasizing Gill and Pant as the best long-term choices. Both are regarded as logical successors in the red-ball setup and have captained their respective IPL teams, the Gujarat Titans and the Lucknow Super Giants.
“You groom somebody and I would say Shubman’s looked very good. Give him the opportunity. He's 25, 26 years of age, even give him time,” he said. "There's Rishabh as well. I think these two are the obvious ones I'm looking at because of their age and they have a decade ahead of them. So, let them learn. They've got experience as captains now, captaining their franchise and that makes a difference.”
