Who Will Be The Captain Of Indian Cricket Team In T20 World Cup 2026?

Indian Captain Rohit Sharma has announced his retirement from T20I cricket after helping India win their 2nd ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2024 by defeating South Africa in the finals by 7 runs and ending the title drought of the Indian cricket team of 17 long years. Men in Blue performed brilliantly in the 9th edition of the marquee event, where they finished the tournament by being undefeated after losing last year's World Cup against Australia in the finals at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. 

With this win, India's 3 senior players Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja, announced their retirement from the shorter format. So that youngsters can get a chance and take the legacy forward. But the question of concern for every cricket fan is who will be taking Rohit Sharma’s place in next year's T20 World Cup 2026, which will be hosted by India and Sri Lanka?

Through this article, we will be talking about Indian Players who can replace Rohit Sharma as a captain in the next T20 World Cup.

After Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli’s exit from T20I cricket, it would not be wrong to say that the opportunities for young players to lead the Indian side have opened with players having IPL as well as Indian captaincy experience against teams like Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Hardik Pandya, KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant and Shubman Gill are the top probable candidates for the captaincy role in the upcoming T20 World Cup as they are already leading their side in the Indian Premier League, out of which Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul have already made their respective franchise winners and made them qualify in the playoffs 2 times. However, Hardik Pandya has a higher chance of being the captain of Indian cricket team in the next T20 World Cup as he has been appointed as a vice-captaincy role during the 9th edition of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024.

Apart from that, he has also proved his match-winning ability in the concluded ICC Men's T20 World Cup, where he put a stop to every question that he was used to ask by former cricketers on his form and fitness after a horrible performance in the 17th edition of the Indian Premier League for Mumbai Indians franchise after he was swapped at a whopping price from Gujarat Titans to Mumbai Indians as a captain of the side. However, things didn't go well for the Star all-rounder as he received several criticisms from the Indian fans and Former Indian cricketers when he failed to perform as a player and as well as captain of the side, becoming the first team to be eliminated from the tournament.

Despite being in bad form, he was backed up by BCCI and Indian team management for the ICC Men's T20 World Cup, where he performed brilliantly in every match showing his all-round ability. He finished the marquee event with 144 runs in six innings with an average of 48.00 and a strike rate of 151.57, including a half-century. On the bowling side, he took 11 wickets in eight games, averaging 17.36 and an economy rate of 7.64, with best figures of 3/20.

After Shubman Gill and KL Rahul were out of form from the Indian team, Hardik Pandya has a slightly higher chance of becoming the captain of Indian cricket team. Although, after Rishabh Pant's comeback and Shubman Gill's, giving captaincy responsibility of a young team, BCCI and team management are still looking for the performance and tactics of young players as captain for the T20 World Cup 2026.