Former Indian opening batter Wasim Jaffer has backed Jasprit Bumrah to succeed Rohit Sharma as the captain of the Indian men’s Test cricket team. Bumrah was Rohit’s deputy in the 2024-25 edition of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, and he also led the side in a couple of matches as well in Rohit’s absence. After Rohit announced his retirement from Test cricket on May 7, many fans, former greats and experts of the game backed him to take over the leadership role amid reports of the BCCI preferring Shubman Gill as the new Test captain. Amid suspense over who will take charge of the Indian Test team, Jaffer, in a tweet posted on Friday morning, has backed Bumrah’s candidature. According to him, Bumrah is an automatic choice, and Gill should be appointed as vice-captain, which will also be a good way to groom him for the leadership roles in the future. He added that when Bumrah needs rest as part of workload management, Gill could step in. “I think Bumrah is an automatic captaincy choice, unless he doesn’t want the responsibility. He should be the captain with Gill as VC, stepping in whenever Bumrah needs rest. This way Gill could also be groomed without the pressure of being the full-time captain. #ENGvIND,” Jaffer tweeted. Gill has led India in a total of five T20I matches so far. He made his captaincy debut against Zimbabwe during the five-match series in July last year. Bumrah, on the other hand, has captained India in three Tests and two T20Is. He first took charge of the Indian team on July 1 against England at Edgbaston in Birmingham. Gill to play for India A Gill, who failed to impress with his performance in the last Test series against Australia, will travel to England in the first week of June to take part in the second four-day match between India A and England Lions. India A will face England Lions in the second four-day match in Northampton from June 6 to 9. In addition to Gill, his Gujarat Titans teammate B Sai Sudharsan will also play in the second four-day Test.