Salman Butt names Virat Kohli’s successor for Indian captaincy

Former Pakistan skipper Salman Butt believes Rishabh Pant can be India’s future captain after Virat Kohli.

Pant has the experience of leading Delhi in the domestic circuit and he was also given the captaincy baton by Delhi Capitals in IPL 2021 when Shreyas Iyer was ruled out with a shoulder injury.

Pant has definitely shown the skills to go a long way in his career and he has been in red-hot form in the last six months. The southpaw scored 274 runs in three Test matches against Australia and played a key role in India’s win in the historic Gabba Test match. The left-hander then scored 270 runs in four Test matches against England in the home conditions.

Thus, Pant has definitely grown in confidence in the last few months and he has also improved his wicket-keeping skills.

Salman Butt said on his YouTube channel, “I am not aware of his domestic cricket (records) in-depth but from what I have seen in the IPL, if they handed Rishabh Pant the captaincy (of Delhi Capitals), then the cricket board (BCCI) may have some plans for the future. Even though Kohli is still young he is not going anywhere for the next 8-9 years.”

On the other hand, Butt also heaped praise on Rohit Sharma’s captaincy. Rohit is the most successful IPL captain as he has led Mumbai Indians to five titles in the tournament’s history.

“Along with him (Pant), Rohit Sharma is an outstanding captain. I really like him as a captain. Strategically and tactically, he’s a very good captain,” observed Butt.

Meanwhile, Butt also lauded Ajinkya Rahane’s inspirational leadership against Australia in the memorable Border-Gavaskar trophy. India was down 0-1 in the series but Rahane led the team to a historic series win against the Tim Paine-led team.

“Recently, they (India) won the Test series in Australia in which Ajinkya Rahane was handling the captaincy. He also did a very nice job in Australia. Tactically, he was spot on and his decision-making was clear,” stated Butt.