'What if India need him because of team strategy?': Bharat Arun on why veteran India bowler cannot become Test captain

Among the three frontrunners for the role to replace Virat Kohli for the Test captaincy role in the Indian team, there are two more names that have surfaced whilst the discussion after the 33-year-old has stepped away from his position earlier last month, one of them being veteran Indian spinner R Ashwin. However, former Indian bowling coach Bharat Arun feels that India should pick a batter rather than a bowler as captain.

Speaking to Sportstar, Arun explained that when conditions or pitches come into play, India might want to pick just one spinner and if fellow spin-bowling all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja is part of the squad, the management might want to back him for the spot in the playing XI ahead of Ashwin and hence the team will have to keep changing the captain almost every Test match.

"The same with Ashwin; what if your combination changes? I would think with the present scenario, bowler becoming a captain will be challenging. You also take into account the different kinds of pitches you play on... What if you need to play just a lone spinner abroad and it happens to be Ravindra Jadeja because of the team strategy... then it becomes a problem, so I would rather pick a batter as a Test captain," he explained.

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Arun explained with the same reason on why Jasprit Bumrah should not be the captain.

"There was also a debate on Bumrah captaining the side. The thing is will they play all Tests? With the workload management in place, would Bumrah be playing all Tests? What if in the middle of a series, he has to take a break? Then you have a change in leadership again. I feel it is not advisable to change a leader midway through a series unless the captain is injured," he said.

Kohli had stepped down from Test captaincy last month, a day after India lost the Test series in Cape Town against South Africa. He no longer remains the captain of the Indian team in any format.

While vice-captain Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant remain the frontrunners for the Test captaincy rile, BCCI had named Rohit as the white-ball captain earlier in November.