"Full faith in Rohit Sharma's captaincy, will win WTC and Champion Trophy": Jay Shah

Jay Shah (Pic: File Pic)

The Board of Control for Cricket in India secretary Jay Shah said that T20 World Cup 2024 captain Rohit Sharma will continue to lead Team India in the ODI and Test formats. He also showed confidence that the country will win the upcoming Champions Trophy and World Test Championship under Rohit's captaincy.

Rohit Sharma became the third Indian captain after Kapil Dev and Mahendra Singh Dhoni to win a global trophy. Following the triumph, the traditional opening batsman also announced his retirement from T20I format.

"The next stage is the WTC final and the Champions Trophy. I have full faith in Rohit Sharma's captaincy, that we will be the champions in both these tournaments," Secretary Shah said in a video message.

The upcoming Champions Trophy will be held in Pakistan after nearly eight years. Even though the draft has been submitted to the International Cricket Council, the BCCI has yet to give a green signal to it.

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There are speculations that BCCI will yet again push for the Hybrid mode like they did for Asia Cup 2023 in which the "Men in Blue" played all its matches in Sri Lanka.

Jay Shah's message, in a way, has put to rest speculations about whether Rohit would quit his leadership role in other formats. Till Rohit calls it quits, India will once again have split captaincy with Rohit leading in ODIs and Tests while Hardik Pandya is expected to take charge of the T20 outfit.

Rohit had also led India to the finals of the WTC and ODI World Cup last year, where India lost the summit clash after winning 10 straight games.

Jay Shah dedicated India's T20 World Cup triumph to the three cricketers, who quit the format after the title victory and outgoing coach Rahul Dravid.

"I want to dedicate this victory to coach Rahul Dravid, captain Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja. This was our third final in the last year. We lost the WTC final in June 2023. In November 2023 we won hearts after 10 wins but couldn't win the Cup. I had said in Rajkot that we will win the heart and also the Cup on June 24 and install our national flag, and our captain installed the Indian flag," the secretary Jay Shah said.

Rohit, Kohli and Jadeja are expected to feature in the ODI series against Sri Lanka slated for August. India will play six ODIs, three against Sri Lanka in an away series and three at home against England in early February before the Champions Trophy.

(With PTI Inputs)