Captain Rishabh Pant set to overtake Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni in elite list during 1st T20I against South Africa (original) (raw)

Rishabh Pant

Rishabh Pant will lead Team India in 5 T20Is against South Africa.

Photo : AP

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Rishabh Pant will make his international captaincy debut when he walks out for the toss in the opening T20I of the five-match series against South Africa later today (June 9). The youngster was originally set to assist KL Rahul in 5 T20Is but the senior cricketer was ruled out due to a groin injury. Rishabh will be assisted by Hardik Pandya, who has been given the role for the first time in his career.

Rishabh will leapfrog Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni in an elite list the moment he will don the captain's hat. The former India U-19 vice-captain will become the second-youngest captain to lead the Men in Blue n T20Is.

At 23 years and 197 days, Suresh Raina holds the record of being India's youngest T20I captain and will continue to keep the numero uno position. Rishabh will start his captaincy career on the 2nd spot. He is 24-year-old and was born in October 1997.

Following Raina and Rishabh will be Dhoni, who was 26 years old when he captained India at the 2007 T20 World Cup. Virender Sehwag, India's inaugural T20I captain, was 28 when the Men in Blue took on South Africa in 2006.

Kohli was also 28 when he first led India in T20Is. Interestingly, the former India skipper led India in his maiden ODI in 2013 and in his first Test in 2014. But his first match as a T20I captain came in January 2017, against England.

Ajinkya Rahane, who captained India on the Zimbabwe tour in 2015, was 28 then. At 30, KL Rahul would have become India's oldest T20I captain. He remains part of the leadership group and it will be interesting to see if he returns for the England tour or not.

The right-handed batsman has been named Rohit's deputy for the one-off Test match.