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Former selector and BCCI secretary Sanjay Jagdale’s brutally honest opinions reflect a no-nonsense approach to cricketing matters. His comments certainly do spark a debate about Indian cricket’s current leadership and team composition. His assertion that Rohit Sharma is an “average Test player” but “brilliant in white-ball cricket” aligns with how Rohit’s Test career has often been viewed. “Rohit is an average Test player. In white ball, he is brilliant. He shouldn’t have been allowed to extend his career,” Jagdale told CricBlogger.
While Rohit has had his moments of brilliance in Tests, particularly as an opener in home conditions, his overseas record remains underwhelming compared to his dominance in ODIs and T20Is. Jagdale’s comparison with Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane raises an intriguing point, as both players have been sidelined despite strong contributions in challenging overseas conditions. However, dropping a Test captain is always a complex decision, especially when balancing leadership stability and form.
“If Pujara and Rahane could be dropped, why can’t you drop Rohit Sharma? At least, Pujara and Rahane have scored runs all over the world,” Jagdale said.
Jagdale’s view that a new Test captain should have been appointed during the Bangladesh series adds weight to the growing conversation about grooming a successor. Given India’s long-term needs in Test cricket, it seems logical to start planning for the future. While Jagdale hasn’t named a replacement, candidates like Jasprit Bumrah, Rishabh Pant, Shubman Gill, KL Rahul and a youngster like Yashasvi Jaiswal have been floated in the past.
“The Bangladesh series was a great opportunity for the selectors to pick a new Test captain, but they didn’t do it,” he said.
Jagdale, who has also been a part of BCCI’s cricket advisory committee along with Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman which picked Indian coaches like Anil Kumble and Ravi Shastri in the past, also said that a senior player like Virat Kohli isn’t going anywhere.
“Virat is class. He can still score runs for his country. He is actually caught in ego battle to chase deliveries outside the off-stump, which you can’t do in red ball cricket because of swing and seam. Virat is such a big player that he is still under the impression that he can hit the ball like he does in white ball cricket,” Jagdale said while adding that Virat’s hunger to succeed could still make him a cornerstone of the Test side alongside Bumrah.
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I would like to disagree! Rohit has played half the number of tests matches of what Kohli has played. If you double rohit’s tests runs and matches, then you will arrive at around Kohli’s stats. Rohit is thus equally good as Kohli in tests. Now, you cannot blame rohit to not get equal games as Kohli during kohli- shashtri era!