Indian Cricket Team : 2021/22 BCCI

Likely contenders for Test Captaincy :

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Virat Kohli steps down from his role as India's most successful Test captain, having recorded 40 wins in 68 matches. He is fourth in the list of captains with most Test wins behind South Africa's Graeme Smith (53) and Australian greats Ricky Ponting (43) and Steve Waugh (41). Under his leadership, Team India reached new heights, including a Test series win in Australia. India also came close of winning the World Test Championship (WTC), losing out to New Zealand in the final.

Following India's narrow Test series loss to South Africa earlier this week, Virat Kohli on Saturday announced that he has decided to quit the Test captaincy. Earlier, Kohli had relinquished the T20 captaincy after India's campaign at the T20 World Cup in the UAE. He was then replaced by Rohit Sharma's as India's full-time white-ball skipper last month. Reacting to Kohli's decision to step down as Test captain, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Sourav Ganguly said that the 33-year-old's decision to step down was a "personal one", adding that the board respects Kohli's decision.

Kohli originally drove India in a Test match before the finish of 2014 in Adelaide in MS Dhoni's nonappearance. He took throughout as the full time chief in a similar series following Dhoni's Test retirement. Throughout the long term, Kohli's prosperity as commander in Tests additionally prompted him assuming control over the reins in different organizations once Dhoni ventured down. In the long run, he outperformed Dhoni and turned into the best Indian Test chief.

Under Kohli, India arrived at the culmination in the Test rankings and figured out how to win a Test series in Australia without precedent for their set of experiences, in 2018-19. While Australia were debilitated in the batting division in that series, India under Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane got back to those shores two years after the fact to beat them once more. India are additionally right now driving the series in England 2-1 and will return this year to play the fifth and last Test. In the debut World Test Championship, India arrived at the last yet wound up losing to New Zealand. By and large, India have won 40 Tests under Kohli with just Graeme Smith, Ricky Ponting and Steve Waugh in front of him in the unequaled rundown.

Contenders for Test Captaincy :

3. KL Rahul

The second Test of the South Africa series, when he supplanted the harmed Kohli as Test commander, was whenever Rahul first had driven India in any configuration. Rahul's vocation has taken a significant turn since the England visit the year before. Picked as a third opener, Rahul supplanted his Karnataka partner Mayank Agarwal who endured blackout just before the main Test in Nottingham.

He proceeded to be India's second-best hitter on the visit, with 315 runs in four matches. All the more as of late, he scored a century in the primary Test of the South Africa series. Rahul, who was one of the players that Kohli had upheld during his captaincy, is 29, so he has the amazing chance to develop into the gig over the long run.

In the course of the last two seasons in the IPL with Punjab Kings, where he was the commander, Rahul was the best hitter for his group as well as in the competition. That capacity to deal with pressure affected the selectors to choose Rahul as the white-ball bad habit skipper on the visit through Australia in 2020, and presently he will lead India in the ODI series in South Africa in the harmed Rohit's nonattendance.

Aesthetically, Rahul is one of the best batters to watch. But he also goes through phases where his batting technique becomes vulnerable. Rahul is equipped to bat anywhere in the top order, but does he have the temperament to ride the personal lows without losing his footing as captain?

2. Rohit Sharma

Rohit is the leader principally on the grounds that he was designated the Test bad habit skipper by the Indian selectors in front of the as of late closed South Africa series. Be that as it may, a hamstring injury governed him out of the series.

Rohit had assumed control over the bad habit captaincy job from Ajinkya Rahane, who has battled for familiarity with the bat for the beyond couple of years in spite of a perfect Test-captaincy record. Conversely, Rohit has arisen as India's best player since he got back to the Test group in January 2021 for the last two Tests of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. In those two matches, Rohit additionally filled in as Rahane's delegate when Kohli got back after the primary Test for the introduction of his kid.

India proceeded to beat Australia 2-1 to get a notable victory. The selectors' solid confidence in Rohit reflected in their choice to designate him as India's white-ball chief in front of the South Africa visit. With the second version of the World Test Championship last just as the ODI World Cup coming up in 2023, the selectors probably wouldn't fret having Rohit lead in every one of the three configurations as that could assist with solidness in the navigation.

Rohit has been dealing with fitness issues throughout his career. While some have been freak incidents - like twisting his ankle playing football in 2010 on the morning of what was meant to be his Test debut - most have been chronic, like the hamstring and knee injuries. Can Rohit sustain and manage the workload that would accompany being the leader in all three formats?

1. Rishabh Pant

Pant is just 24, however he effectively spaces into the primary XI across designs. Upbeat behind the wicket, forceful with the bat, and with a procedure all his own, Pant has been perceived as a generational ability by the two his companions and resigned legends of the game. He has apparently not been occupied by the flood of analysis that unavoidably comes his direction each time he takes a risk with the bat, at a vital second in the game, which doesn't fall off.

One of Pant's champion exhibitions came against Australia last January, when he took India to a memorable success at the Gabba with an unbeaten 89. All the more as of late, he set up a battling execution in the Newlands Test against South Africa, scoring a century in an innings in which no other player made more than 29.