India’s Jasprit Bumrah appeals successfully for the wicket of Australia’s Marnus Labuschagne during play on the second day of the fifth cricket test between India and Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground, in Sydney, Australia. (AP/PTI)

Ravichandran Ashwin has picked Jasprit Bumrah as his first choice to replace Rohit Sharma as India’s next Test captain. Speaking on his Hindi YouTube channel Ash Ki Baat, Ashwin said: “Whoever becomes I wish them the best.”“There is a leadership vacuum in the team. If you ask me one simple and plain choice for captaincy it should Jasprit Bumrah,” he said. “Jasprit Bumrah’s workload and all keep coming up. Pat Cummins has led Australia and has done really well. Jasprit had one surgery and then a break again, I am not sure whether wants to puts himself on the line for five Tests.

“I will be very surprised, if he plays all the five. He has to be given breaks in between to recuperate. I really think, he is a national treasurer. I will be really upset and disappointed that Jasprit Bumrah will not be consider as a captain. “I was so happy, when he became the captain for the first time,” he added. TimesofIndia.com has earlier reported that Shubman Gill is the frontrunner for the Test captaincy and will be announced as India’s next Test captain soon.Who’s that IPL player?Indian cricket will enter an uncertain new era next week when selectors name a Test squad without all-time greats Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma for the first time in more than a decade.Batting great Kohli and captain Rohit both retired from Tests in the past week, leaving Shubman Gill as the front-runner to lead a new-look India in England.

The retirement last year of veteran spinner Ravichandran Ashwin leaves India without the backbone of the side that was formerly number one in the world Test rankings.Top-order batsman Gill is favourite to be given the task of starting India’s rebuild with the five-Test England series, which begins on June 20 at Headingley.