Hardik Pandya set to lead India in Champions Trophy 2025 if Rohit leaves his captaincy role

Hardik Pandya has become the front runner to lead Team India in the Champions Trophy if Rohit Sharma steps down as the skipper

Indian captain Rohit Sharma's name has been all over the internet for all the wrong reasons after the 37-year-old's decision to drop himself from the playing 11 of the team ahead of the Sydney Test-Match versus the Australians. The Indian skipper is not having a good time with the bat in the ongoing BGT series, managing to score just 31 runs ever since his return to the team in Adelaide Test-Match. 

Not just with the bat, the Men in Blue have not been able to perform well under his leadership, losing the matches in Melbourne and Adelaide and these defeats have allowed the Kangaroos to take a 2-1 lead in the five-match Series. 

Keeping his poor form with the bat and Team India's struggles in the BGT series under his captaincy, the 37-year-old came up with the call to sit out of the Sydney Test-Match. Bumrah replaced him as the skipper in the final match and when he came out for the toss at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) on Friday, he revealed that Rohit had decided to take a rest from the final match and therefore, he's not taking part in the Sydney Test-Match. 

However, some media reports have made contradictory claims that the 37-year-old had been dropped from the team after his lackluster performance with the bat in the last three matches of the BGT series. Seeing his name excluded from the team-sheet of Team India have also made many experts and fans think that the Melbourne Boxing-Day Test-Match was the final test game of Rohit's career. 

If the MCG Test-Match were to be his final game in International Cricket too, keeping in mind that he's already 37-years-old, the Men in Blue would be in need of a new One-Day International Captain to handle the leadership duties and lead the team in the 2025 edition of the Champions Trophy in the UAE and Pakistan. 

The name of fast bowling all-rounder Hardik Pandya has emerged as the main choice to replace Rohit as the skipper of Team India in One Day Cricket if his career continues to go downhill after his decision to miss the Sydney Test-Match of the BGT 2024-25 series.

"He (Hardik) knows how to lead the teams in crunch situations and the experience which he has as a captain and a fast bowling all-rounder makes him a good choice for leading the team in the 2025 Champions Trophy," a unnamed source told My Khel. 

"We also thought of making Shubman (Gill) lead the team but he's not that experienced and Surya hasn't performed well in One Day Cricket. Therefore, Pandya remains the front runner to lead the team in ODI if Rohit is not going to play," the source of My Khel added. 

Junior Pandya had previously captained the Men in Blue in three One-Day International matches, verus the Windies in July & August of 2023 and versus the Australians in March of the same year.The 31-year-old who doesn't play in the longest format of the game anymore, was earlier viewed as the main candidate to handle the leadership duties in T20 Internationals but the BCCI eventually decided to ahead with Surya following the retirement of Rohit Sharma.

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