The Indian cricket captaincy conundrum

MS Dhoni or Virat Kohli? Two-captains for two kinds of format or one for all? A wicket-keeper/batsman as the skipper or a top-order batsman? Indian cricket’s ‘crown of thorns’ is up for debate and like any contentious topic in, it is bound to consume much attention and time. The main contenders include an all-time great Indian skipper and a batsman who is in the form of his life.

8 teams, 60 matches and 7 ‘Indian’ skippers (discounting Duminy and Miller) constituted the recently concluded 9th edition of the Indian Premier League. This featured 2 new teams, unfamiliar captains (Raina, Vijay), seasoned IPL leaders (Gambhir, Rohit, Dhoni), a motivational veteran (Zaheer Khan) and the Indian cricket’s man of the moment - Virat Kohli captaining a powerful side.

Right through pre-tournament previews till the beginning of the finals, the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) weren’t the most fancied team in the competition. The team was led by the only non-Indian skipper - David Warner, who didn’t have any prior experience of leading Australia. The middle order appeared fragile and injuries to experienced Indian international players (Nehra and Yuvraj) added to the perceptual woes.

While Kohli hogged all the limelight for scoring 973 runs at an average 81, the applause for Warner’s tally of 848 runs at 61 was probably overshadowed by the appreciation of his leadership. SRH’s story in so many ways is reminiscent to that of the Rajasthan Royals in 2008 and Deccan Chargers in 2009: an experienced Australian player with relatively less captaincy experience helming a successful campaign of an average looking team by leading from the front.

While the jury is out on who was the best skipper in the tournament, the above pattern subtly invokes the good-old clichéd debate of whether a captain is as good as his team or his/her leadership skills make a team of individuals punch above their weight.

Appoint the best player as the captain

Dhoni had a poor time with the Pune side in the 2016 IPL

This example also suggests that appointing the best player in a playing eleven can sometimes inspire colleagues to give their best by commanding respect and admiration. Both Dhoni and Kohli receive immense respect from their colleagues and peers but you sense the latter’s present form could be a decisive advantage in this regard.

Ravi Shastri has been working closely with the Indian team management for most of the last 2 seasons and hence whatever he says commands attention. Just after the conclusion of IPL 2016, he voiced his preference for Virat Kohli leading India in all 3 formats and letting MS Dhoni enjoy his last few years on the circuit without carrying the additional burden.

India hasn’t won a major title since 2013, despite finishing in the last 4 on two occasions. The Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings (CSK) lost the final of IPL 2015 and the Rising Pune Supergiants (RPS) had a shoddy debut season under him.

Kohli was anointed as the skipper of the test side in 2015, after Dhoni retired from the format and since then India has a win-loss record of 5-1 (not including the Adelaide test of December 2014 as Kohli was the temporary skipper then). Kohli became the skipper of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in 2013 and discounting a blip in 2014, RCB have had two top-4 finishes in the last 2 seasons.

2 November 2008 is the last day when Dhoni played an international match under somebody else; this loosely infers to having spent more time leading teams since starting off than the other way. Given the kind of personality that he is you can never judge his thoughts/plans on face value.

Plan for the future

Is Kohli the man to lead India forward in all formats of the game?

The Champions Trophy in 2017 is a year away and the 50-over World Cup roughly 3 years from now in 2019. The recent IPL season affirms that Dhoni still is India’s best bet as the keeper/batsman in the side, but wicketkeepers generally don’t have a shelf life as long as batsmen and hence you’d bank upon a 27-year-old rather than a 34-year-old as a long-term investment.

The other side of the story makes this apparently linear problem slightly complex. Sachin Tendulkar didn’t have an illustrious stint as the skipper of India, but when he stepped aside he indicated about a poor string of results affecting his form as a batsman. Kohli is by some distance India’s best batsman at the moment and by making him a 12-month skipper could be jeopardising form.

Test cricket tends to keep a check on moments of adrenaline rush as the final goal is always a long distance away. Limited overs cricket tends to bring such reactions to the surface and can have a negative impact on the fielding sides; needless to say, who among the two (Dhoni and Kohli) is the non-preferred choice in this regard. Also, Dhoni has been India’s best skipper in the limited-overs formats by some distance and you can sense that there is some gas left in the tank!

India has plenty of bilateral tournaments in the next 10 months starting with the limited-overs series in Zimbabwe; predominantly featuring test cricket. We have seen Virat Kohli the batsman being tested across conditions but haven’t seen much of Virat Kohli the Indian skipper yet.

Perhaps by the time the 2016-17 season ends we might an answer or a definitive clue on who would be leading India for the 2019 World Cup. Until then we might resume to the argument on the influence captains have in the final outcome.