Tactics will be different, approach will be different: Sunil Gavaskar on Rohit Sharma's Test captaincy debut
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Ahead of the Sri Lanka Test series opener, Little Master Sunil Gavaskar has backed Rohit Sharma to deliver even as the red-ball captain due to his vast experience.
Rohit Sharma is set to start his captaincy tenure in the red-ball format as India is set to take on Sri Lanka in the first of the two-match Test series, starting on March 04 (Friday) in Mohali. So far, Rohit has got off to a flying start as the white-ball captain but it will be the first time that he will lead the national side in whites.
For the unversed, Rohit had led India on numerous occasions in white-ball formats before being the full-time limited-overs skipper, however, he never led in Test matches. He could've led India in the South Africa Tests, held early this year in the African nation, as then captain Virat Kohli had missed a game due to injury. During the SA tour, Hitman was named the vice-captain in whites. However, since he missed the whole tour due to injury, he couldn't lead in whites. Thus, the stage is finally set for the 34-year-old's debut as Test captain with the commencement of the SL series at home.
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Ahead of the series opener, Little Master Sunil Gavaskar has backed Rohit to deliver even as the red-ball captain due to his experience. "With the experience that he has had over the years of captaining various teams, that should not be too much of an issue. Yes, this is the longer format, so the tactics will be different, the approach will be different. But he has got the experience, so don't really foresee anything majorly difficult for the captain," Gavaskar told Star Sports ahead of India's meeting with Sri Lanka at Mohali.
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Rohit was appointed India's full-time captain after Kohli resigned as the Test skipper post the SA series, which ended during mid-January 2022. It will be interesting to see how he takes the team forward in the purest format after the national side's highly-successful run under Kohli.
India's squad for SL Test series:
Rohit Sharma (C), Mayank Agarwal, Priyank Panchal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas, Hanuma Vihari, Gill, Rishabh Pant, KS Bharat, Ashwin (subject to fitness), Ravindra Jadeja, Jayant Yadav, Kuldeep, Bumrah (VC), Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Sourabh Kumar
