The discussions continue over who will become the next Indian cricket team T20I captain with Hardik Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav emerging as the two major contenders. Rohit Sharma retired from the format following the T20 World Cup 2024 triumph and that means the captaincy position is currently up for grabs. While vice-captain Hardik was the favourite to succeed Rohit, Suryakumar as emerged as a strong contender in the past few days. Media reports claimed that SKY is most likely to be named captain for the upcoming T20I series against Sri Lanka with the team management concerned about Hardik’s injury record. The squad announcement is expected to take place on Thursday but earlier, head coach Gautam Gambhir was part of an informal call with the BCCI officials and the selection committee.

A report by Hindustan Times claimed that although Gambhir did not take anyone’s name specifically for the captaincy, he told the team management that he would like to work with a skipper whose injury is not a concern and whose workload management will not become a problem in the future.

“Although Gambhir did not directly pitch for Surya in the call, he made it amply clear that he would want to work with a captain whose workload does not become a stumbling block. Agarkar was clear with his views,” a BCCI official told Hindustan Times.

Meanwhile, Suryakumar Yadav is the highest placed Indian at second spot, while young opener Yashasvi Jaiswal occupies the sixth position in the ICC T20I batting rankings issued on Wednesday. Ruturaj Gaikwad has dropped a place to the eighth position in the T20 batters’ list, which was updated following India’s recent 4-1 series triumph over Zimbabwe.

Jaiswal was the big winner following his 141 runs in the series as he rose four places, behind No.1 ranked batter Travis Head of Australia and Suryakumar.

Shubman Gill, who led India against Zimbabwe in the absence of senior players and was the leading run-scorer of the series with 170 runs from five innings, moved up a whopping 36 places to 37th.

No Indian features in the top 10 of the T20I bowlers rankings. Axar Patel, who was rested for the Zimbabwe series, dropped four places to 13th spot.

(With PTI inputs)