IPL 2020: Sunil Gavaskar Picks Player Who Could Be 'India's future captain'

IPL 2020: Sunil Gavaskar has suggested Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) KL Rahul could be groomed for the Indian team's leadership role. Rahul, who moved from Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) to KXIP in 2018, is set to become the 12th man to lead KXIP. Rahul produced impressive performances in his first two seasons with Punjab. In IPL 2018, Rahul finished as the third-highest run-getter with 659 runs at 54.92 in 14 games.

In IPL 2019, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) opener David Warner bagged the Orange Cap for scoring 735 runs at 69.20 in 12 games, and in the list of most runs in the tournament last year, Rahul was in the second place with593 runs at 53.91 in 14 matches.

When MS Dhoni was the captain of Team India, it was clear that his successor was going to be Virat Kohli. Kohli took over India's Test captaincy mid-tour in Australia following Dhoni's sudden retirement. Dhoni passed the ODI baton to Kohli in 2017 and ever since then, the Delhi-born cricketer has taken India to new heights with the team becoming World No. 1 in all formats of the game.

When one discusses Kohli's successor, Rohit Sharma's name comes up first, considering his fine run as Mumbai Indians' skipper, leading the franchise to a record four Indian Premier League (IPL) titles. Rohit was made MI's captain in the middle of IPL 2013 and as a result, Mumbai won their maiden IPL title that season. MI's other IPL title victories have come in 2015, 2017, and the latest was last year, where Rohit's side edged part Chennai Super Kings (CSK) by one run in the final.

Ahead of KXIP's opening fixture in the IPL 2020 against Delhi Capitals (DC) on Sunday, former Indian captain Gavaskar spoke to Sports Tak about various topics, including Rahul's chances of becoming the future Indian skipper.

"There is a great chance for KL Rahul to show that he can score runs when given the responsibility. Secondly, he can show that he is capable of captaining a side and how he moulds his team and extracts effort. If he does that well he can even go on to become the vice-captain of the Indian team.

There are still players in the Indian team like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Ajinkya Rahane. But going forward, he can be an option for the selection committee and can also become India's future captain. So, this can be a huge tournament for KL Rahul as a skipper," added Gavaskar in the same interview.

Earlier when Rahul was asked about leading KXIP in the IPL 2020, the Karnataka batsman revealed Dhoni has been his role model when it came to captaincy. "It has always been MS Dhoni. I'm grateful that I've had the honour of playing under him and with him. Even Rohit (Sharma) is quite a good captain, Virat (Kohli) is a phenomenal captain. I have learned a lot from all of them and hopefully, I can use all of that knowledge when I'm captaining," said Rahul in an interview. 

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