Rashid Latif is finding similarities between India and Pakistan

 India's captain in all three editions is Rohit Sharma. But he is going to toss where! Sometimes Lokesh Rahul, sometimes Rishabh Pant or sometimes Hardik Pandya - almost before every series new captains appear in Indian cricket. This game of musical chairs of captaincy has been going on for quite some time now due to injury, rest or near series.

That trend continues in the ODI series against Zimbabwe. Shikhar Dhawan has been named as the captain for the three-match ODI series to be held in Harare on August 18, 20 and 22. Regular captain Rohit Sharma has been rested in this series. However, the word 'regular' has lost its value in the way Indian cricket is seeing new captains every now and then. Unbelievably, India has seen seven different captains in three editions this year!

Last year Rohit Sharma got the captaincy first T20 and then ODI. He also got the Test cricket captaincy in January. India have played 32 matches since taking over the captaincy of all three formats. Rohit Sharma played in 18 of them. Lokesh Rahul (3), Rishabh Pant (5), Hardik Pandya (2), Yashpreet Bumrah (1) and Shikhar Dhawan (3) have captained India in the remaining 14 matches. Discussions and criticisms have been going on for a long time in Indian cricket about each captain in each series. Former Indian captain and board chief Sourav Ganguly also expressed his objection about this 'musical chair' game of captaincy. Having seven different captains in such a short span of time is not ideal, he said knowingly. This time, former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif gave a strong wind to the criticism. Those who see this incident in India are reminded of the Pakistan team of the 1990s.

Pakistan team used to play such musical chairs with captaincy that sometimes there were six-seven former captains in the team. The result of which was not good as usual. Rashid Latif feels that India is repeating the same mistakes made by Pakistan in the 1990s. Rashid Latif said on his own YouTube channel, 'Everyone is talking about alternate players. But they have now produced seven alternate captains. I am seeing this for the first time in Indian cricket history. Virat Kohli, Lokesh Rahul, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Rishabh Pant, Jasprit Bumrah...'

Rashid Latif thinks that India's real problem is being hidden while thinking more about the captain, 'They haven't found a good opener yet. Not a reliable middle order either. They just want a new captain. No captain is playing regularly. KL Rahul is not fit now, Rohit himself was unfit earlier, Virat is not mentally ready to play. They have to think about this. They are changing captains a lot. They need a leader like Sourav Ganguly, Virat Kohli.'

At the current rate, whether a captain can play consecutively in three editions is a big question.