India in South Africa, 2021-22

[rajitghosh]

Ashwin for Captain. He has a.smart cricketing brain.

[prasen9]

Ashwin does not come in automatically in the XI when we are playing in places where spin is useless. Which unfortunately is perhaps England, South Africa, and maybe New Zealand. Also, Australia. Two spinners are a luxury and Jadeja is a better bat.

I like the idea of making Jadeja as the captain.

Otherwise, let's see who is there. Bumrah is a good candidate imho. But, pace bowlers need to be rested and rotated.

Maybe we should do captain series by series. Until Pant matures a bit. For the upcoming Test series against Sri Lanka, Rohit is a good idea. Rohit can be the interim captain whenever he is fit.

[Atithee]

Pant can be made the captain now. Making Rohit the captain will be Kohli deja Vu all over again. Jadeja is older and also not always a certainty in the team. A wicket-keeper captain is good to have.

[prasen9]

Pant can be made the captain now. Making Rohit the captain will be Kohli deja Vu all over again. Jadeja is older and also not always a certainty in the team. A wicket-keeper captain is good to have.

Jadeja is not a certainty in the test team? In which country? In the limited overs, he is not. I am not a big fan of having someone captain all three formats. Dhoni became a pretty slow batter if my memory serves me correctly but that may just be my impression. Pant still needs to figure out his shot selection. If he had batted with some sense in the second test, the series may have been won. I said at that time Pant gifted the series and that is what happened. I do not want to burden his mind with all sorts of other things and lose a fantastic, free-flowing batsman.

The selectors, of course, will go to Rahul first. Or may be Rohit first and then Rahul. Maybe then Bumrah.

[SaniaFan]

Some times people need responsibility to be more mature.
I think it should be between Pant and KL. And what I saw of KL I did not like. Jadeja is not even in talks to that seems unlikely in any case. Has Jadeja lead any side before? Also I some how have an impression that he gets injured often.
But in the end I think selectors will go with Rohit (unless he himself doesn't want to do it) which I think would be wrong. Rohit has injury problems and he has never been egular in test sides.

[Atithee]

^^^^Ditto

[rajitghosh]

I think we are headed for a Gavaskar Kapil Dev situation where captaincy keeps changing every couple of years. Kohli may be back as captain after the disaster in the World Cup.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Kapil Gavaskar era lacked social media, otherwise no kapil no test in eden garden would have been trending

[prasen9]

I do not mind captaincy changing every game or every series. I know it creates a bit of an uncertainty at the top. But, I want the plan of the team to be run by Dravid and I do not want a strong playing captain. Sort of like the coach of a football team and its captain. On the field, Pant is capable of changing fields, etc. But, he has shown very little of tactical captaincy for Delhi when he was captain --- if we are judging Rahul by this one match where he was standby for the first time. Pant is the eventual long-term captain. I just want maybe a season or so for him to be someone's deputy. That way, assigning Bumrah to be the VC was a prime mistake. That said, I do not mind Pant being the captain in meaningless or easy assignments at home such as Sri Lanka (who will perhaps take this insult and defeat us ).

I must admit that I thought Dhoni and Kohli were made captains too early too. There you have my bias.

[rajitghosh]

Kapil Gavaskar era lacked social media, otherwise no kapil no test in eden garden would have been trending

Yes but had social media been there no rotten eggs and tomatoes would have been thrown on the captain and his wife. In another thread India's greatest all rounder is being discussed. The difference between Kapil and other other all rounders is that dropping Kapil led to a near riot, if Jadeja or Ashwin is dropped nobody cares.

[prasen9]

Which shows the lack of depth at that time. And, the bad communication skills of Gavaskar in that he did not take the pains to explain clearly why Kapil had been dropped. Even if he did, there may have been a riot. It is also a reflection of Gavaskar being a poor captain largely and the populace's especially in the East Zone becoming tired of his Mumbai Lobby who foisted upon us people who did not deserve but would get a place in the team while other deserving candidates from other zones would not. Kapil did not politic (at least that much). And, the person who was the captain when we won an unprecedented, unthought-of World Cup would always be a cult hero. Anyway, times change and we expect good performance and near-world-dominance always now. Popularity is not a yardstick in my view to choose an athlete. It is not a popularity contest. To each, his or her own I suppose.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Captaincy debate is a media hype. In indian & world cricket many best captains have played under new captains and that best captain have huge role to guide that new captain

MK Pataudi who was one of the best played under Ajit Wadekar, who was also one of the finest, Kapil played under Gavaskar and vice versa, even Kapil towards end of his career played under Azhar. Same goes with Ganguly, Dravid and even Dhoni played under Kohli and gave those valuable inputs.

Rohit & Kohli now have huge role to guide Rahul/ Pant/ Bumrah to develop them as captain by playing under them. Ganguly- Jai Shah - Kohli issue are just fueling up the issue.

[sameerph]

I do not mind captaincy changing every game or every series. I know it creates a bit of an uncertainty at the top. But, I want the plan of the team to be run by Dravid and I do not want a strong playing captain. Sort of like the coach of a football team and its captain. On the field, Pant is capable of changing fields, etc. But, he has shown very little of tactical captaincy for Delhi when he was captain --- if we are judging Rahul by this one match where he was standby for the first time. Pant is the eventual long-term captain. I just want maybe a season or so for him to be someone's deputy. That way, assigning Bumrah to be the VC was a prime mistake.

Why not Bumrah as captain ahead of Pant ? Just because he is a bowler and not a batsman ? They have similar level of experience and somehow Bumrah seems to have more cricketing intelligence than Pant though I maybe wrong here.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

I do not mind captaincy changing every game or every series. I know it creates a bit of an uncertainty at the top. But, I want the plan of the team to be run by Dravid and I do not want a strong playing captain. Sort of like the coach of a football team and its captain. On the field, Pant is capable of changing fields, etc. But, he has shown very little of tactical captaincy for Delhi when he was captain --- if we are judging Rahul by this one match where he was standby for the first time. Pant is the eventual long-term captain. I just want maybe a season or so for him to be someone's deputy. That way, assigning Bumrah to be the VC was a prime mistake.

Why not Bumrah as captain ahead of Pant ? Just because he is a bowler and not a batsman ? They have similar level of experience and somehow Bumrah seems to have more cricketing intelligence than Pant though I maybe wrong here.

The game says wicketkeeper holds such a key position where he feels the progress of the game, the motive of opponent batters and their game plan as a result they are preferred as captains over batsman & bowlers

[Kumar]

Why not Bumrah as captain ahead of Pant ? Just because he is a bowler and not a batsman ? They have similar level of experience and somehow Bumrah seems to have more cricketing intelligence than Pant though I maybe wrong here.

Bumrah has fitness concerns. We have the following regulars in our team

Rohit, KL, Kohli, Pant, Bumrah and Jadeja. Rohit and Bumrah fitness concerns.i just don’t think KL is good (he just looks like he has huge weight on his shoulders).

That is why it is depressing that Kohli gave it up now. If he had given it up after Australia series, i think Rahane may have stayed on and actually done well. Let us keep our fingers crossed that Rohit can stay fit. Pant can be tried, but afraid that he will lose his exuberance if made a captain.