'Rishabh Pant is an aggressive captain': Aakash Chopra on why southpaw might be future Test India skipper

Former India opener Aakash Chopra reckons young wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant might pip KL Rahul as the Test captain of the team in future.

Rahul will be leading the Indian team in the three-match ODI series in Zimbabwe after being declared fit by the BCCI medical team.

The right-handed batsman was recovering from a sports hernia surgery and was supposed to play the West Indies series before testing positive for COVID-19.

Since his recovery was taking time, he was not initially selected for the Zimbabwe tour and given time to get fully fit before the all-important Asia Cup.

All-format captain

However, the medical team has now given an all-clear after he cleared all the requisite fitness parameters to be available for selection.

Since he is an all-format first-choice deputy to regular skipper Rohit Sharma, his availability meant that Shikhar Dhawan was relegated to vice-captaincy for the series.

However, Chopra feels that Pant might have an edge over Rahul as skipper of the Test side, as both players are yet to develop their captaincy styles.

Room for imporvement

"There are three other captains. I will talk about KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer, I can talk about Sanju Samson as well. But you have not understood the clear DNA of their captaincy. Rishabh Pant for example can be an aggressive captain at times, but sometimes he doesn't utilise the bowlers properly. He is learning at the moment. The captaincy DNA is not there yet, and that's the case with KL Rahul as well. But, Rishabh Pant may just actually pip Rahul to the post in Test cricket but don't forget Rahul is a class player across formats," Chopra said in a video uploaded on his YouTube channel.

The cricketer-turned commentator felt among all the Indian captains in the IPL, Samson was the best, in terms of managing the bowlers. "They are captaining their franchises but they are all work in progress. I think Sanju Samson is managing the bowling resources a little better. He had a very good bowling attack as well," Chopra added.