About a couple of months ago, Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya were in rehabilitation and there were doubts over their fitness. Fast forward to today, and either one of them is likely to be appointed as Team India's vice-captain for the T20 World Cup 2024.
As the selectors get set to announce India's squad for the tournament beginning 2, a Cricbuzz report claimed that Pant might be made Rohit Sharma's deputy. Interestingly, he was India's vice-captain in T20Is when Hardik Pandya was leading the side in Rohit's absence.
Pant, who is the frontrunner for the wicketkeeper's role at the T20 World Cup, had even captained India in the 5-match T20I series against South Africa in June 2022.
The report further claimed that another potential candidate for the vice-captaincy role is Hardik Pandya. However, the reason why Pant holds an edge over the Mumbai Indians' skipper is due to Hardik's questionable decision-making in IPL 2024 and his meagre returns with both bat and ball.
Hardik was once in contention to lead India at the T20 World Cup as Rohit hadn't played any international T20s for more than a year. In his absence, Hardik captained the team in most bilateral T20I series.