The Ajit Agarkar-headed selection committee made the shocking call to remove Rishabh Pant as the vice-captain before the one-off Test against Afghanistan in June. The wicketkeeper-batter had joined the leadership group before the England tour in 2025 and he was dropped in less than a year. Pant continued to score runs and also led the team in the Guwahati Test against South Africa in Shubman Gill’s absence. The selectors brought back KL Rahul into the leadership group and appointed him the vice-captain. Aakash Chopra has shared his take on this and questioned why he was appointed the vice-captain despite being eight years older than captain Gill.

“I am with you on this one. I have never thought from that perspective. You think about a vice-captain from what perspective? That he is next in line, that if the captain goes, the second one will come, but the second should either be of the same age or younger,” Chopra replied to a fan on YouTube.

“If you are making a vice-captain who is eight years older than the captain, as good as KL Rahul is, he is a good captaincy candidate, he has got a good cricketing brain, but he is not getting younger. If he is doing the vice-captaincy for a 26-year-old captain, he is not the next in line,” he added.

KL Rahul joined India’s leadership group under Rohit Sharma and became the vice-captain in all three formats. He lost his place in the T20I team after the 2022 World Cup. His below-par performances saw him lose the vice-captaincy in Tests and ODIs in 2023. Rahul was also dropped from the Test team’s playing XI in 2023.

He made his return in both formats and was part of the 2023 ODI World Cup team. Rahul has cemented his spot in the Test team as well and is the present vice-captain.

The right-handed batter isn’t in the scheme of things in the shortest format and is unlikely to add to his 72 T20I caps. Rahul, who has two centuries in T20Is, scored 2265 runs before being dropped in 2022.

Disclaimer: This article summarizes a report by Aakash Chopra. While Times Now has verified the public data presented, the interpretations of ‘intent’ remain those of the creator.