Former captain Mithali Raj backed Smriti Mandhana for the longer formats after India’s recent World Cup early elimination, believing that much younger Shafali Verma may take over in T20. When a social media commenter questioned Shafali’s leadership credentials, Mithali vehemently defended her choice to support the younger hitter in spite of her lack of formal captaincy experience.

Mithali had expected Smriti to be in charge of ODIs two or three years ago. But according to her, Smriti ought to be in command of the Test and one-day formats at the very least, while a younger person might be in charge of the T20.

The questioner raised an important point: why not just keep Smriti in all formats instead of handing the T20 captaincy to an inexperienced leader? According to their specific investigation, Shafali has never served as the Women’s Premier League’s official franchise captain or vice captain.

“How Mithali Raj @M_Raj03 believes @TheShafaliVerma can be T20 IWCT captain is beyond me! Why can’t Smriti be the captain of both T20 and ODI? Shafali still needs to establish herself as a leader in addition to taking wickets and scoring runs.

“That’s a fair question,” Srujana asked on X. “She doesn’t even captain or officially vice captain a WPL team either.” This has nothing to do with Smriti’s leadership skills, which I am confident in, which is why I have stated that she would be a good captain for India in the longer formats. In my opinion, Shafali is more about the future.

She can bowl, has one of the highest strike rates, is still young, and has been in the T20 setup since 2019. Leadership is built on the pitch, not on a shelf. Similarly, Jemimah participates in all international T20 leagues. It’s true that she had a poor World Cup, but any player may experience that. She is a team player, selfless, and a superb spin player. Her fielding, which frequently goes unnoticed, saves 20–25 runs every game. So, in my opinion, both are really ready,” Mithali Raj answered.

Mithali Raj opinions regarding the development of younger captains

Mithali Raj highlighted that they need to give the individual they decide to settle in some time. because each of us had time to settle into our leadership positions. “Shafali Verma led India to the U-19 World Cup title but was not given a leadership role,” she said, addressing a broader systemic issue.

We don’t have a plan. Where do you envisage the Indian team in two years? We don’t consider it. Only series to series are on our minds. Mithali Raj stated, “We don’t have a long-term plan.

India’s selectors will now need to explain the succession dilemma as they investigate changes in the wake of the tournament loss.

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