'Not even a candidate for Test captaincy?' - Aakash Chopra perplexed over Rishabh Pant’s captaincy snub in Duleep Trophy

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the four Duleep Trophy squads on Wednesday, August 14. Apart from Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Jasprit Bumrah, all the high-profile cricketers, including Ravindra Jadeja, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant and Suryakumar Yadav will be featuring in the tournament. However, none of these senior cricketers has been named as captains as Shubman Gill, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Ruturaj Gaikwad, and Shreyas Iyer have been given the baton.

Former cricketer Aakash Chopra was particularly surprised to see Pant not being named as one of the captains. He will be playing under Easwaran, which according to Chopra is fine but given Pant’s impact and influence in red-ball cricket, he expected the 26-year-old to be part of India’s captaincy group.

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“Rishabh Pant is not a captain. He has been selected in Abhimanyu Easwaran's team. He is playing under Abhimanyu Easwaran's captaincy, which is absolutely okay. However, is Rishabh Pant not even a candidate for Test captaincy? I am a little surprised,” Chopra said in a video released on his YouTube channel.

“I am not aligned with this personally because the best avatar of Rishabh Pant you have seen is as a Test cricketer. He is the only wicketkeeper in the history of Indian cricket who has scored centuries in South Africa, England, and Australia in Test matches. Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shreyas Iyer, and even Abhimanyu Easwaran are captains but Pant is not a captain, and that is a huge takeaway in my opinion,” he added.

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Notably, Pant will play his first red-ball game since suffering multiple injuries following a car accident in December 2022. He is in the scheme of things for the upcoming Bangladesh Test and the Duleep Trophy is the perfect stage for him to prove his mettle and get ahead of Dhruv Jurel and KL Rahul in the race. 

The upcoming Duleep Trophy will begin on September 5 and will be played in Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh, and M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru.