India will be touring South Africa in an all-format series starting from December 10. The Men in Blue have just defeated Australia in a five-match T20I series and are now gunning for success in South Africa's home. The BCCI announced three different squads with three different captains as regular skipper Rohit Sharma opted for rest from the white-ball format of the series.
Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan has called out BCCI's move to appoint different captains for different formats and said that he is not a big fan of it. "This could be a sign for the future, which I am not a big fan of. There has been talk for a long time about whether we can do split captaincy. It's true that workload management has been done here and that is why you are seeing such big squads and different captains. It's clear that Rohit Sharma had to take a break from white-ball cricket, so you are not seeing him there," Pathan told Star Sports.
He then stated that it would be better if the split captaincy would not be implemented in India's culture. "You are seeing him as the captain for Test cricket. However, you might see these things going forward. You might even see different coaches for different formats. I believe it's better if it doesn't happen in our culture," he added.
India will be led by Suryakumar Yadav (T20Is), KL Rahul (ODIs) and Rohit Sharma (Tests) during the South Africa tour. Rohit and Virat Kohli opted to take a break from the white-ball tour, the Indian Board confirmed while announcing India's squad for the South Africa tour.
Surya recently led the Indian team to a 4-1 series win against Australia. He helped the Men in Blue begin their T20 WC preparations with a win in the absence of Hardik Pandya and other senior pros. Pandya captains India in T20Is in the absence of Rohit and has been doing that since the T20 World Cup 2022.
