"Have been saying this for past 3-4 years"- Ex-IND legend picks Rohit's ideal successor in white-ball cricket, leaves out Hardik, Pant or Rahul

The year 2022 has seen a total of 7-8 players leading Team India across formats. The Indian team has done a lot of chopping and changing in this calendar year, which hasn't helped the team at all. And India couldn't do well in both the Asia Cup and the T20 World Cup.

And India's dreadful 10-wicket loss to England in the T20 World Cup semi-finals has sparked talk of a split captaincy. Some reports also suggest that the management is looking to give the role of T20I captain to star all-rounder Hardik Pandya.

That is why he was seen leading the team in the T20I series against New Zealand recently and has been one of the leading candidates to lead the team in the future after leading his IPL franchise, the Gujarat Titans, to their maiden IPL title in IPL 2022.

Former Indian legend Sunil Gavaskar and former head coach Ravi Shastri have also advocated for Hardik to be the next T20I captain. And it seems that Hardik has overtaken both Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul in the captaincy race.

On the other hand, former Indian cricketer Maninder Singh has also thrown one other name into the race for India's next captain. In response to a Hindustan Times query during an interaction with Sony Sports Networks ahead of IND-BAN ODI series, Maninder picked Shreyas Iyer as an ideal captaincy candidate.

Notably, Iyer has been in spectacular form in the ODIs for India this year and has been scoring runs consistently in the middle overs. He will be a vital player for India in the ongoing ODIs against Bangladesh in the absence of Hardik.

Maninder said that Iyer is his favorite player and has led his team very well in the IPL as well. He lauded the 27-year-old and said that he is a very smart cricketer who always looks for runs.

Maninder also pointed out that Iyer has been doing well in the last 3–4 years with India and in the IPL as well. However, the former cricketer reckons that Hardik is ready to take the captaincy, but Iyer could prove to be Rohit's successor in white-ball cricket.

He said, "For me, I still feel, I've said it earlier Hardik Pandya at the moment - you can make him the captain in white-ball cricket. But in my mind, its Shreyas Iyer, actually (a candidate) for the past 3-4 years. I really hope that we give him opportunities to play for India regularly in all the formats because he has a good brain."