Ravichandran Ashwin has endorsed Jasprit Bumrah as the potential new Test captain following the unexpected retirements of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli from Test cricket. Both batting stalwarts announced their retirements within days of each other, with Rohit stepping down last Wednesday and Kohli following suit with an Instagram announcement a few days later.Ashwin expressed surprise at the simultaneous retirement of both players and sees challenging times ahead for Indian cricket.“I didn’t have an idea that both [Rohit and Kohli] would retire together. This will be a testing time for Indian cricket, and I’ll say this is truly now the beginning of the Gautam Gambhir era,” Ashwin stated on his YouTube show ‘Ash Ki Baat’.Recent reports suggest Shubman Gill is the leading candidate for captaincy, despite Bumrah’s experience as Rohit’s deputy in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, where he served as stand-in captain in Perth and led the team in Sydney when Rohit was unavailable.Quiz: Who’s that IPL player?“The team that will tour England will be a completely new team, a transformed team where Bumrah will probably be the senior-most player. He is obviously one of the captaincy options; I think he deserves the captaincy, but the selectors will make a decision based on his physical capacity,” Ashwin commented.Ashwin believes both Rohit and Virat had more to contribute to Indian cricket. He expressed concerns about the upcoming five-Test series against England starting June 20 in Headingley, where the team will feel the absence of experienced leadership.
“Their retirements will definitely create a leadership vacuum. You can’t buy experience, especially on tours like this. Virat’s energy and Rohit’s composure will be missed,” Ashwin noted.Ashwin particularly emphasized Rohit’s potential continued value to the team’s leadership.“Tests has been the finest [format for India] in the last 10-12 years, but just for the sake of leadership, Rohit should’ve played till the England series, and if he’d performed, he could’ve carried on and given some more leadership,” Ashwin added.
