Gautam Gambhir picks Prithvi Shaw as Hardik Pandya’s competitor for India’s captaincy

Former India cricketer Gautam Gambhir backs the notion of Hardik Pandya taking over the Team India captaincy role in the future but the cricketer-turned-politician believes that Prithvi Shaw is also in the fray to become the next India skipper.

While backing Pandya is understandable and makes sense as the all-rounder led Gujarat Titans to the IPL title in their maiden season and has already captained India in T20Is, Shaw is an unusual choice because he hasn’t played for Team India since July 2021.

“Hardik Pandya obviously is in line. But that’s going to be unfortunate for Rohit because I think judging his captaincy in only one ICC event is not the right way to probably judge him,” Gambhir said at an event organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

Further talking about Shaw, Gambhir said: “The reason I’ve picked Prithvi Shaw, I know a lot of people talk about his off-field activities, but that is what the job of the coach and the selectors are. The selectors’ job isn’t just to pick the 15, but also to get people walk the right path.”

“Prithvi Shaw is one I feel can be a very aggressive captain, a very successful captain because you see that aggression in the way a person plays the sport,” he added.

It is worth noting that Shaw had led the youth side to the U-19 World Cup win in 2018, but the right-handed batter was suspended for a doping violation in 2019 and ever since then, his fitness has been under scrutiny.

However, Shaw captained Mumbai to the Vijay Hazare Trophy in March 2021. Also, the 23-year-old recently finished second in runs scored at the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20s while playing for Mumbai. He scored a career-best 61-ball 134 against Assam, while overall he smashed 332 runs in 10 innings- in the tournament at a strike rate of 181.42.

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