The Indian Cricket Team is in the United Kingdom to play a one-off Test starting on 1st July at Edgbaston. The Test is the rescheduled fifth Test of India's tour of England from last year, where India took a 2-1 lead following aggressive cricket under the leadership of Virat Kohli and coach Ravi Shastri. The fifth and final Test was postponed and rescheduled for July 2022. Unlike the 2021 tour, Team India has played a warm-up game against the English county side Leicestershire and looks in good shape. However, two stalwarts of the Indian Cricket team seem to be missing out at present. Vice-captain KL Rahul suffered a groin injury and is unavailable for the match in Birmingham. At the same time, skipper Rohit Sharma tested positive for Coronavirus and faces a race against time to be fit for the decider. The BCCI has sent Mayank Aggarwal as a replacement opener and is likely to partner with Shubman Gill up the order. However, the captaincy issue is still a concern for India. Even ICC couldn't abstain from the debate and posted a tweet on Tuesday, asking the fans to name their choice of India captain in the one-off Test starting Friday. Former India cricketer and off-spinner Harbhajan Singh has come up with an interesting name – Jasprit Bumrah as the skipper for the one-off Test. Jasprit Bumrah is one of India's bowling mainstays and is an all-format player. He has undoubtedly received Harbhajan Singh's backing. Under the last bowling captain, Anil Kumble, India did well.

Jasprit Bumrah also found support from former India speedster Mohit Sharma who compared him with the legendary Kapil Dev.

The former India fast bowler said that if Kapil Dev could lead India to their maiden World Cup triumph in 1983, Jasprit Bumrah could lead the team to a Test series victory in England.

“I don’t know how well you know Jassi (Jasprit Bumrah) but I know him very well. We played a lot of cricket together. He is a very cool and calm character,” Mohit Sharma told news agency ANI.

“On the field, he bowls aggressively but off the field, he is very calm and if he becomes a captain then the taboo of fast bowlers can’t become captain will not be there,” he added.

“Paaji (Kapil Dev) did for India if you look at other countries Pat Cummins has led Australia. So, if Bumrah becomes captain then it would be great for India,” Mohit Sharma concluded.

But ex-Pakistan leg-spinner Danish Kaneria also felt that if the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) elevated Jasprit Bumrah to the captaincy, it could hamper his bowling.

If he's allowed to lead the Indian team, Jasprit Bumrah would have to focus on a different job altogether and may not get the time to think about how to execute his plans against the England batters.

“BCCI has indicated that Pant, Bumrah, or Ashwin could be given the captaincy if Rohit isn't available. Bumrah shouldn't be given the load of captaincy and he should rather concentrate on his bowling. I wouldn't want him to lead the side,” Danish Kaneria said on his YouTube channel.

However, as per reports, Virat Kohli is likely to lead the team in the absence of Rohit Sharma.

“I’m surprised that Kohli’s name isn’t being suggested. Pant and Bumrah are in the race to lead the team in Edgbaston. Pujara has been playing in England for so long. He also can lead the team if Rohit isn’t available. The best option for India is to give the captaincy to Kohli. He can return if India doesn’t find any other option. But I am hopeful that Rohit will be leading the team in the fifth Test,” Danish Kaneria added.

Earlier, Graeme Swann had said that Virat Kohli should lead India in Rohit Sharma’s absence.

“You could say why not let Virat Kohli finish off the things he started and sort of have a final hoorah. Whether Virat would want to do that, I don’t know. I don’t think England will really mind. Maybe, if you think about Ben Stokes… He would quite like Virat Kohli to be captain then he could directly compare to how Joe Root’s team played against Virat Kohli’s,” Graeme Swann said in an interaction organized by Sony Sports Network.

“England won’t be too worried about who is India’s captain. They would be looking to put as much pressure as possible on the Indian batting unit and bowl them out. When we used to play against the Indian team, they had some great names, we always used to worry about how to get them out cheaply, it was never about who is captain,” Graeme Swann elaborated.

Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma posted a picture of himself with a thumbs-up gesture on his Instagram. It is believed that Rohit will make a recovery before the Edgbaston Test and will lead the team.