Former Indian all-rounder Irfan Pathan feels that the Indian think tank should try to find a suitable leader to replace Rohit Sharma in 2024. The 36-year-old captained India to the 2023 ODI World Cup final and is presently captaining the team in the ongoing two-match Test series against South Africa.

On a wake-up call, after India’s defeat in the ODI World Cup final, they have a wide call that the Indian team must move on from the senior players as this could rebuilding phase in Indian cricket with youngsters coming up the ranks in all three formats of the game alongside a change in leadership position with an eye in the future.

Speaking on Star Sports, Irfan Pathan believes that Men in Blue should try to develop many leaders in the team. He stated that the Indian team has performed exceptionally well under the captaincy of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma and questioned who will lead the team after him.

“There are chances of a lot of changes in 2024. So if we prepare two or three leaders, we won’t have too many problems. The focus should also be on which leaders you will prepare. The Indian team performed amazingly well for five years under Virat Kohli’s leadership in Test cricket.”

“They reached the No. 1 ranking. His fitness was fantastic. He performed well in every match and extracted performance from the team in every match. Rohit Sharma also got the team to perform amazingly well. We saw it in the World Cup and he won the Asia Cup but who after Rohit Sharma?” Irfan Pathan said.

Rohit Sharma has been one of the successful white-ball captains. With age not being on his side, Indian selectors and the team management would look to groom the next youngster in the team to take up the mantle for India in International cricket.

We Didn’t Have Very Good Fully Ready Backups For Fast Bowlers – Irfan Pathan

Irfan Pathan believes that India has to prepare a good fast-bowling unit and that they do not have backups ready, noting their performance against South Africa in the first Test, undermining Mohammed Shami’s unavailability for the Proteas tour.

“I personally feel the Indian team needs to prepare a good fast-bowling unit in 2024. We saw what happened in South Africa. We didn’t have very good fully ready backups for fast bowlers. It’s not that they don’t have quality but they weren’t ready, so you felt Mohammed Shami’s absence.”

“It means, God forbid, if something happens to Jasprit Bumrah, we have seen him getting injured earlier because of his action, we will look left and right and we won’t get quality bowlers like that,” Irfan Pathan added.

In the last year or so, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, and Mohammed Siraj have been crucial to the team’s success in all three formats of the game.

Arshdeep Singh, Mukesh Kumar, and Prasidh Krishna are finding their way to make it to the team through domestic performance and could be crucial to the team’s success in the upcoming years.