Rishabh Pant Not Considered For Duleep Trophy Captaincy, Aakash Chopra Surprised

Aakash Chopra expressed his surprise at Rishabh Pant not being considered for the captaincy in the upcoming Duleep Trophy 2024. Despite being a prominent wicketkeeper-batter, Pant has been placed in Team B under the leadership of Bengal opener Abhimanyu Easwaran.

Shubman Gill will lead Team A, while Ruturaj Gaikwad and Shreyas Iyer will captain Teams C and D, respectively. Notably, Abhimanyu Easwaran is the only uncapped player among the captains in this tournament.

Abhimanyu Easwaran, who has played 94 first-class matches, will lead a team featuring players like Rishabh Pant, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, and Mohammed Siraj. This decision has left Aakash Chopra puzzled.

"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," Aakash Chopra said on his YouTube channel.

Chopra highlighted that Pant's performance as a Test cricketer has been exceptional. He noted that Pant is the only Indian wicketkeeper to have scored centuries in South Africa, England, and Australia in Test matches.

"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," Chopra observed.

Chopra further questioned why other players like Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shreyas Iyer, and even Abhimanyu Easwaran were chosen as captains over Pant. He believes this marks a significant shift in Indian cricket's direction.

"Who else has done that? No one has. The way he plays in Test cricket and scores runs consistently, personally, in my opinion, he was a captaincy candidate. However, 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."

KL Rahul's Role

Aakash Chopra also discussed KL Rahul's position within Team A led by Shubman Gill. He pointed out that Dhruv Jurel’s inclusion as the wicketkeeper indicates KL Rahul may no longer be considered for that role in Test cricket.

"Even for KL Rahul, the team he has been kept has Dhruv Jurel as the keeper and Shubman Gill is the captain of that side. So things have started becoming slightly clear that Indian cricket has started moving towards Shubman Gill. When KL Rahul has been picked in Dhruv Jurel's team, it means Dhruv Jurel will keep, so KL Rahul is no longer your Test keeper, which is also okay," Aakash Chopra stated.

Chopra also mentioned Gautam Gambhir’s potential views on Rishabh Pant’s exclusion from captaincy roles. He recalled how Pant was benched during initial ODI matches against Sri Lanka while KL Rahul played instead.

"A new era has started. So I will be very curious to know what Gautam's opinion is with regards to Rishabh Pant the captain. When the ODIs started (against Sri Lanka), he didn't play the first two matches; KL Rahul was playing but Pant came in the last match," he explained in the same video," he added.

The decisions regarding team leadership for Duleep Trophy 2024 have sparked discussions about future directions for Indian cricket and key players' roles within it.