Should Rohit Sharma be made India's full-time captain in T20Is?

With a blazing century at Atal Bihari Vajpayee stadium in Lucknow in the second T20I against West Indies, India’s stand-in captain Rohit Sharma took India to another series victory.

This was his 10th win in his first 11 matches as captain of India’s T20 team, a record in itself. More importantly, it is further proof of how good a captain he is in the limited overs format, especially in the shortest version of the game.

This begs the question: Is it time to hand over the reins of India’s T20 team to Rohit Sharma full time? The answer, I believe, should be a resounding yes. To understand why Rohit needs to be made India’s full time T20 captain, let’s have a look at the following reasons.

Rohit is the most successful captain in the IPL so far, along with MS Dhoni. Both have led their respective franchises to three IPL titles each. So, as a captain, Rohit Sharma’s record is comparable to that of Dhoni, the only captain to have won India the World Cup in both the 50-over and 20-over formats.

India’s incumbent all-format captain Virat Kohli’s captaincy record in the IPL is abysmal, to say the least. He has not managed to lead his team to a single IPL title. Despite having the most star-studded line-up, Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bangalore finds itself in the bottom half of the points table, more often than not.

In recent times, India’s regular captain Kohli has been skipping most of India’s T20I matches, in an apparent bid to keep himself fresh for more important assignments. It’s doubtful he will play (m)any T20Is before India’s 50-over World Cup campaign in 2019.

In such an event, it’s Rohit who will be leading the Indian team as he has been successfully doing in the recent past. Since the T20 World Cup is in 2020, a continuity in India’s T20 captaincy should actually help their cause, as the players are getting accustomed to Rohit Sharma’s captaincy style, which is certainly different from that of Kohli.

Success breeds success. Rohit Sharma’s terrific captaincy record in the T20 format both in IPL as well as in the international scene augurs well for India’s chances in the T20 World Cup in 2020.

Furthermore, India’s batting mainstay in all three formats, Virat Kohli, will be mentally less fatigued if he is no longer burdened with captaining in all three formats. Who knows this may lead him to not skip T20Is, as he can express himself freely as a batsman without worrying about captaincy!

All things considered, it’s high time Rohit is made India’s full-time skipper in the shortest format so that he could emulate MS Dhoni’s success as India’s captain, just as he has done in the IPL.