Captaincy in sports is largely overrated. And quite truly so, what you eventually want from a team is the best performance from each individual that eventually helps in meeting the team objective(s). This in turn assists in making the road to victory easier. In sports like Football, a captain has a minimal role to play, with most of the strategy planning being done by the Manager and instructions being sent thereof. However, in Cricket, it becomes different, purely because of the duration over which a game is played. Even if you take Cricket's shortest format, the T20 - you'll see that it takes almost double the time of a complete Football game sans extra-time. It is because of this longer time frame that the man in the middle has to take a lot of decisions regarding which bowler to bowl with, changing the field, scrutinizing the opposition's tactics, etc.
So the question we often ask is: captaincy is overrated, does this statement still stand true when we see it in cricketing context?
The answer is a no. No matter how much captains come out and say- 'a captain is as good as his team,' know for a fact that the statement doesn't hold true. If it did then we would surely not have seen John Buchanan's idea of multiple captains backfire so miserably. A captain plays a pivotal role in the team that just doesn't end with executing the plans. It also requires the understanding of the game, the skill to read situations quickly and take instinctive calls, to know how manage your players and most importantly, it requires the attitude to lead from the front all the time and act as a rallying point during times of lows. This is where the bigger picture surrounding Team India's Test future comes about. We at present are faced with a team in transition and a captain in stagnation, a newspaper report by the Times of India today, talks of the possible replacement of current India Test captain, MS Dhoni with either Gautam Gambhir or Virat Kohli. And that is exactly where this conundrum arises.
For some, it is a no brainer - Kohli all the way. Ever since, he led his team to the U19 World Cup win in Kuala Lumpur, five years ago, Kohli has been touted as a future India captain. He is brash, aggressive and in-your-face, just what Indian cricket requires right now. He won't mind giving it back to the opposition with both the bat and the tongue. Although he seemed to have faltered a bit during the initial days of his career, in terms of attitude, strong guidance in the form of Ray Jennings (Coach, Team Bangalore) and an omission from the National team shook him up. What we saw in return was a more mature, determined Kohli. After all, fifteen international centuries at the age of 23 can never be an aberration. And consider that amongst those fifteen, there is a hundred on World Cup debut, a steely century at Adelaide, a blitzkrieg at Hobart and a patient 103 at Nagpur. It just reflects the skills of a player who has evolved rather quickly and is perhaps at the peak of his career. Some even go to the extent of calling him the next replacement to the great Tendulkar. However, a novice of ten-twelve odd Test matches, is he the best person to replace Dhoni as skipper? On current form, perhaps yes...but, taking the bigger picture into consideration, no.
Putting Kohli into the frying pan of Test captaincy might just work wonders for Indian cricket. Here is a person who hates to lose and has a burning desire to overpower the opposition. But to put him under such responsibility at the nascent stages of his career would be a move most likely to fail. Examples are often drawn of Graeme Smith, who took up South Africa captaincy at the age of 22 but we tend to forget that this is Indian cricket you are talking about. There's a lot of scrutiny, both from fans as well as the media. You have tons and tons of sponsors and truck loads of commitments. Cricket is not just a sport, it's a way of life. And to master the art of living, you need experience by your side. That is something Kohli desperately needs. And knowing fully well that he has tendencies to lose focus, it would be foolish to give him captaincy and risk presently, India's best player in all formats of the game. Time will come when Kohli will ascend the captaincy, in natural course. But that time is not now. Ganguly was 27 when he became India captain and Dhoni, 28. Four years make a lot of difference in international cricket. Four years can change World Champions, four years can see greats retire, four years can see a promising youngster fade away and four years can see the game change. So by putting Kohli into captaincy right away, we will be taking away four to five years of vital learning time from him. During which he could learn and understand the game better, so that when he does take up the captaincy, he is perfect at it.
Then comes the next obvious contender, Gautam Gambhir. Hailing from the same place as Kohli and with slightly similar nature, Gambhir had been at the receiving end of the selection system for quite some time. Sidelined, ignored and replaced at last moments, he fully knows what it's like to look over your shoulders in a cricket team, that is one of the many reasons why he should be made captain, he fully understands the insecurity that a player can face and can easily empathise with him. An ability, Sourav Ganguly had, again, because he himself had been at the receiving end of it countless times. Apart from that, Gambhir is an experienced campaigner with nearly 230 internationals to his name. He has played in all continents and is thoroughly seasoned in playing the longer format of the game both at Domestic and International level. He is in his early thirties, making him an ideal choice to see through with the transition before handing over the reigns to a more mature Virat Kohli. Gambhir has been a big game player himself, let's not forget that in both the T20 and 50-50 World Cup victories, it was Gautam Gambhir's knock in the final that made a lot of difference. Let's not forget Napier 2009 and that marathon 643 minute effort to save India that Test. Let's not forget Kolkata, 2009 and that superb 150 to make India come back into the match from nowhere. Agreed that in the second instance, it was Kohli at the other end assisting Gambhir in India's chase. But, what stood out was Gambhir's gesture during the post match presentation when he handed over his Man of the Match Award to none other than the young Kohli who had then scored his first international ton. A repeat of which was seen during one of the IPL matches, when Gambhir again passed his MoM to a lesser known Debabrata Das of KKR, for ably taking the team till the finishing line. There have been odd instances when Gambhir has lost his cool, the 'Shane Watson nudge' being one of them. But the fact that he wears his heart on his sleeve augers well for Indian Cricket. It is time, a more passionate leader takes over from a dispassionate and laid back one and infuse some spirit into a team that is on its downward spiral. The only thing that works against Gambhir is his current form. A captain who cannot perform will be clouded in self-doubt which will have adverse effects on the team-morale and captaincy. But we've seen that in the past, while captaining, Gambhir has taken the onus on himself to lead his team to victory - be it a brilliant 5th IPL or his staggering average of 90 and 2 centuries while captaining India in ODIs.
Kohli should ideally be given the T20 mantle and eased into captaincy. He is tailor made for captaining in all formats but that shall have to wait. Gambhir is a logical choice to replace Dhoni if the selectors decide to. Winning a tournament or a series does add some feathers to the captain's cap. And Gambhir has a 100% win record as India skipper and has the distinctive record of making Kolkata win their first IPL. However, I would like to point out that T20 captaincy should not be the only barometer to gauge someone's abilities to lead but one of the barometers to do so. It is a belief that if given an opportunity, it will hardly take Gambhir any time to turn his form around and help in improving Team India's current performances in the Test arena.
So the question we often ask is: captaincy is overrated, does this statement still stand true when we see it in cricketing context?
For some, it is a no brainer - Kohli all the way. Ever since, he led his team to the U19 World Cup win in Kuala Lumpur, five years ago, Kohli has been touted as a future India captain. He is brash, aggressive and in-your-face, just what Indian cricket requires right now. He won't mind giving it back to the opposition with both the bat and the tongue. Although he seemed to have faltered a bit during the initial days of his career, in terms of attitude, strong guidance in the form of Ray Jennings (Coach, Team Bangalore) and an omission from the National team shook him up. What we saw in return was a more mature, determined Kohli. After all, fifteen international centuries at the age of 23 can never be an aberration. And consider that amongst those fifteen, there is a hundred on World Cup debut, a steely century at Adelaide, a blitzkrieg at Hobart and a patient 103 at Nagpur. It just reflects the skills of a player who has evolved rather quickly and is perhaps at the peak of his career. Some even go to the extent of calling him the next replacement to the great Tendulkar. However, a novice of ten-twelve odd Test matches, is he the best person to replace Dhoni as skipper? On current form, perhaps yes...but, taking the bigger picture into consideration, no.
Putting Kohli into the frying pan of Test captaincy might just work wonders for Indian cricket. Here is a person who hates to lose and has a burning desire to overpower the opposition. But to put him under such responsibility at the nascent stages of his career would be a move most likely to fail. Examples are often drawn of Graeme Smith, who took up South Africa captaincy at the age of 22 but we tend to forget that this is Indian cricket you are talking about. There's a lot of scrutiny, both from fans as well as the media. You have tons and tons of sponsors and truck loads of commitments. Cricket is not just a sport, it's a way of life. And to master the art of living, you need experience by your side. That is something Kohli desperately needs. And knowing fully well that he has tendencies to lose focus, it would be foolish to give him captaincy and risk presently, India's best player in all formats of the game. Time will come when Kohli will ascend the captaincy, in natural course. But that time is not now. Ganguly was 27 when he became India captain and Dhoni, 28. Four years make a lot of difference in international cricket. Four years can change World Champions, four years can see greats retire, four years can see a promising youngster fade away and four years can see the game change. So by putting Kohli into captaincy right away, we will be taking away four to five years of vital learning time from him. During which he could learn and understand the game better, so that when he does take up the captaincy, he is perfect at it.
Kohli should ideally be given the T20 mantle and eased into captaincy. He is tailor made for captaining in all formats but that shall have to wait. Gambhir is a logical choice to replace Dhoni if the selectors decide to. Winning a tournament or a series does add some feathers to the captain's cap. And Gambhir has a 100% win record as India skipper and has the distinctive record of making Kolkata win their first IPL. However, I would like to point out that T20 captaincy should not be the only barometer to gauge someone's abilities to lead but one of the barometers to do so. It is a belief that if given an opportunity, it will hardly take Gambhir any time to turn his form around and help in improving Team India's current performances in the Test arena.
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