Former India off-spinner R Ashwin reckoned that Jasprit Bumrah deserves captaincy and should be the next leader for the national team in Tests after Rohit Sharma announced his retirement from the format last week. Ashwin mentioned that it will be a tricky transition for India without both Virat Kohli and Rohit and hence, Bumrah should be the captain but his workload concerns may not let the selectors be brave enough to take that chance of him missing a couple of matches in a long series but still be the main captain.
"I didn't have an idea both [Rohit and Kohli] would retire together," Ashwin said on his Youtube show 'Ash Ki Baat'. "This will a testing time for Indian cricket, and I'll say this is truly now the beginning of the Gautam Gambhir era.
"The team that will tour England will be a completely new team, a transformed team where Bumrah will probably be the senior-most player. He is obviously one of the captaincy options; I think he deserves the captaincy, but the selectors will take a decision based on his physical capacity," Ashwin added.
Shubman Gill is currently the frontrunner to take over the reins from Rohit with Rishabh Pant being his deputy. However, for Gill, it will be a huge challenge not having either Kohli or Rohit on his either side. Ashwin admitted that Rohit and Kohli's back-to-back retirements will create a vacuum in terms of leadership while saying that the latter had at least a few more months of Test cricket left in him.
"Their retirements will definitely create a leadership vacuum. You can't buy experience, especially on tours like this. Virat's energy and Rohit's composure will be missed.
"There will be a sense of fulfilment, but I honestly feely Kohli definitely had one-two years of Test cricket left in him. Rohit, I felt would at least go on till the England Test series, because there's a leadership vacuum in the team," Ashwin added.
Ashwin himself retired from Test cricket during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy after the Gabba clash.