India’s two-match Test series against Bangladesh is set to kick off on November 19. The series will also see Rishabh Pant making his comeback to Test cricket as the player missed the format since his horrible car crash in December 2022. While Pant will be the cynosure of all eyes, it will also be interesting to see if the Indian cricket team shows more trust on KL Rahul‘s experience or it goes with a young Sarfaraz Khan, who has piled lots of runs in the past few years. Both of them have been named in the squad for the first Test against Bangladesh.

While commenting on KL Rahul, former India player Aakash Chopra said that the player will always be in the shadows of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.

“I personally like KL Rahul as a player. He will have to score runs. If he keeps scoring runs, he will keep moving forward. His fate is that he will always be in the shadows of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. These are the big guys. I feel Rahul is super talented, super skilled. He will keep playing until he keeps scoring runs. Although the team rates him very high, an atmosphere gets created against him very quickly in Indian cricket,” Chopra said in a video posted on his YouTube channel.

“There are plenty of people who go after him. So he won’t get as long a rope as you would give to anyone else with the same caliber or pedigree. If it’s up to me, I would definitely give it because he has scored a lot of runs and difficult runs,” he added.

India are set to play a total of 10 Test matches ahead of the World Test Championship (WTC) final. After matches against Bangladesh, the Rohit Sharma-led side will host New Zealand for a three-match Test series before touring to Australia for a series of five matches.

The BCCI on August 14 named the squads for the first round of Duleep Trophy 2024-25. With the four-team tournament set to start on September 5, India’s wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant will be marking his return to red-ball cricket. Pant has been picked in ‘Team B’ and it is interesting to note that he has not been named the captain of the side. Instead, Abhimanyu Easwaran has been assigned the duty to lead the team. Former India cricekter Aakash Chopra has questioned BCCI’s move regarding that, as years ago Pant was seen as the successor of Rohit in Test captaincy.

“Rishabh Pant is not a captain. He has been selected in Abhimanyu Easwaran’s team. He is playing under Abhimanyu Easwaran’s captaincy, which is absolutely okay. However, is Rishabh Pant not even a candidate for Test captaincy? I am a little surprised,” Aakash Chopra said in a video on his YouTube channel.

“I am not aligned with this personally because the best avatar of Rishabh Pant you have seen is as a Test cricketer. He is the only wicketkeeper in the history of Indian cricket who has scored centuries in South Africa, England and Australia in Test matches. The way he plays in Test cricket and the consistency with which he scores, he was the captaincy candidate in my opinion,” he added.

Chopra was also curious to know the opinion of India’s head coach Gautam Gambhir with regards to Pant the captain.

“However, Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shreyas Iyer and even Abhimanyu Easwaran are captains but Pant is not a captain, and that is a huge takeaway in my opinion,” he said.

“A new era has started. So I will be very curious to know what Gautam’s opinion is with regards to Rishabh Pant the captain,” added the ex-India batter.