Yashasvi Jaiswal is turning out to be the front-runner in vice-captaincy race

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With Jasprit Bumrah all set to become the new Test captain in place of Rohit Sharma from the England series onwards, Yashasvi Jaiswal could be named his deputy, sources told CricBlogger.

Sources said that there is a considerable push from a certain quarter of the BCCI to make Rishabh Pant vice-captain, but Jaiswal is ahead in the race. “Jaiswal is getting enough push from the top to be there in the team as vice-captain and the selectors could look at him as a future Indian captain in Test cricket,” a BCCI source said.

With runs becoming the only criteria to hold on to the hot seat like Test captaincy, the recent India-Australia series saw the incumbent Test captain Rohit Sharma losing his slot in the XI due to a series of poor show with the bat and even in the process of losing captaincy of the Indian team.

The criteria to score runs have become such a priority that some of the match-winners like Pant are losing pace. With the Delhi southpaw mostly seen adopting his natural style of whacking the ball out of the park and at times not paying off, Indian coach Gautam Gambhir isn’t too impressed with this attitude at the cost of playing for his team. Sources also said that Gambhir was in favor of dropping Pant from the second fifth Test match in Sydney till Rohit came to Pant’s rescue.

With Bumrah not certain to play all the Test matches because of the workload management and injury issues, the team is hunting for a future leader who could guide India in absence of the premier fast bowler. Is the young Jaiswal stable enough to manage the team in the absence of Bumrah?

With the likes of Shubman Gill also losing out on plenty of opportunities to showcase consistency, the selectors may not be completely convinced to hand over the vice-captaincy in red ball cricket. Therefore, scoring some runs in other formats of the game could perhaps help Gill to restore some pride, otherwise, he is clearly losing the plot to Jaiswal. Even a senior pro like KL Rahul isn’t discussed much to be in the leadership group because of inconsistent run at the highest level.