NEW DELHI, March 15: The Champions Trophy triumph has added to the aura of Rohit Sharma and it won’t be a surprise if he continues as Test captain and travels to England as leader of the pack even as the selectors are yet to make a decision on the tour, starting June 20.
Rohit was under pressure to perform in Dubai, especially after a 1-3 series defeat in Australia accentuated his own poor form.
The triumphant run in Dubai has certainly given the skipper breathing space and elbow room.
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But the question remains if the national selection committee will consider success in ODI format while deciding on more challenging Tests format, where the returns have been modest, of late.
The team suffered six hard-to-digest defeats, in the last WTC cycle.
The new cycle for India will begin with the England series, where the first Test will be played at Leeds.
“Technically, Rohit remains the Test captain. He voluntarily benched himself from the last Test in Sydney where he explained that a team can’t carry on with multiple out of form batters.
“After Australia Tests, India haven’t played any Tests and hence there has been no change in Test captaincy. Also Rohit never said he doesn’t want to play Tests,” a BCCI source told PTI on conditions of anonymity.
However he added that the national selection committee hasn’t yet decided on the England series.
“The selection committee gets a break during IPL. Obviously with all matches televised, they always don’t need to travel unless they have some specific strategy or they want to watch a particular player from up close,” the source added.
“So once IPL starts, the blueprint for England series will be drawn at some point. But (coach) Gautam Gambhir’s viewpoint will have a lot of weightage,” he added.
