Ashwin: Jasprit Bumrah 'deserves the captaincy'

R Ashwin has said the sudden retirements of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have created a significant leadership vacuum in India's Test team and that Jasprit Bumrah is a deserving candidate for the captaincy.

"I didn't have an idea both [Rohit and Kohli] would retire together," Ashwin said on his Youtube show 'Ash Ki Baat'. "This will a testing time for Indian cricket, and I'll say this is truly now the beginning of the Gautam Gambhir era.

"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 take a decision based on his physical capacity.

"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."

Shubman Gill is considered the frontrunner to succeed Rohit despite Bumrah having been vice-captain until the tour of Australia earlier this year. He was the stand-in captain during the victory in the Perth Test and also led the side when Rohit stood down for the fifth Test in Sydney.

The primary consideration around whether Bumrah should be captain or not is the managing of his workload, given his recent injury concerns. He had trouble with his back during the Sydney Test and had to miss the home bilateral series against England, the Champions Trophy, and the start of IPL 2025.

Reflecting on the timing of Rohit and Kohli's retirements, Ashwin said he thought both players had more to offer. "There will be a sense of fulfilment, but I honestly feely Kohli definitely had one-two years of Test cricket left in him," Ashwin said. "Rohit, I felt would at least go on till the England Test series, because there's a leadership vacuum in the team.

"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.

"My favourite piece of batsmanship of Rohit for India was when he played in England [2021]," he said. "When he and KL Rahul opened, we were 2-1 ahead because of Rohit. The opening partnership was gun, strong.

"Between 2018-19 to 2022-23 was Rohit's best phase as a Test batter. Even the Covid series in Australia which we won, his batting was top notch. Then also he was looking very good, didn't get big runs but batting was top notch."

Ashwin picked Kohli's twin centuries in Adelaide during his Test captaincy debut in 2014 as one of the finest performances he had seen.

"Kohli the Test cricketer was box office, he was brand ambassador of Test cricket in many ways," Ashwin said. "Some of his best knocks haven't always resulted in wins, but that's taking nothing away from those knocks. The twin hundreds in Adelaide in 2014 - that knock not finishing in a win is a shame. The 153 in Jo'burg, the pink-ball Test when we were all out for 36, the 74 he made in the first innings - some of the knocks are incredible."