Rohit Sharma plays down Test captaincy talks: Forget that for now, there's time for that

Rohit Sharma, who is being looked at as the front runner for Test captaincy role, said he is not thinking about the responsibility now and his focus is on helping India do well against West Indies and Sri Lanka in the limited-overs series.

Rohit Sharma on Saturday said he is not thinking about Test captaincy now even as he is being tipped as the front runner for the role. Speaking on the eve of the ODI series against the West Indies, Rohit said his focus is currently on the limited-overs series against the Caribbeans and Sri Lanka at home.

Rohit Sharma took over India's full-time limited-overs captaincy after Virat Kohli quit T20i captaincy and was sacked as ODI captain. He is likely to take over as Test captain as Virat Kohli quit from the top job in an unforeseen manner earlier in January as he announced his decision a day after India lost a Test series in South Africa.

Rohit was appointed as the vice-captain of the Test team in December 2021 after Ajnkya Rahane was sacked as captain due to poor form last year. However, Rohit was not able to travel to South Africa due to a hamstring injury.

Questions are being asked of Rohit's fitness as the star opener had missed several high-profile series in the recent past due to injury concerns. With a T20 World Cup and 50-over World Cup coming in 2022 and 2023, respectively, Rohit needs to be at his fittest best to lead the team in white-ball formats.

When asked if he is open to taking up Test captaincy as well, Rohit also shed light on workload management.

Kohli was the last India captain to lead the team in all formats. He led the Test team from 2014 to 2022 while he was the captain of the limited-overs sides between 2017 and 2021.

"There's time for that. My focus is on limited-overs cricket. Workload management is important. We could lose a few series because we need to keep changing players, but we're ready for that," Rohit told reporters from Ahmedabad on Saturday.