The 2019 Indian Premier League final. Chennai Super Kings needed nine runs to win off the final over. Mumbai Indians’ skipper Rohit Sharma tossed the ball to Lasith Malinga; the Sri Lankan had gone for 42 runs in his three overs that night, had dropped a catch and had missed a run out.
Mumbai won by one run.
The match had been deeply tactical, with momentum see-sawing throughout the night. Chennai captain M.S. Dhoni was cool under pressure, as expected, but Sharma was cooler that day.
This is one of the reasons Sharma is the frontrunner to be India’s T20I captain after Virat Kohli bows out at the end of the ongoing World Cup. It is a campaign that has, so far, gone horribly for one of the favourites. India now depends on the results of others to make it to the semifinals.
The question is, will the BCCI bank on Sharma’s experience and success—he is the current vice captain, has captained India, was part of the T20 World Cup-winning team of 2007 and has led Mumbai Indians to five IPL titles—or will it be more forward-looking and add freshness to the team by choosing a younger captain? The names of K.L. Rahul and Rishabh Pant are doing the rounds.
Whoever the choice, he will, along with new coach Rahul Dravid, have nearly a year to correct course, before the next T20 World Cup in Australia.
Dravid, the former India captain and former head of the National Cricket Academy, has previously coached the India A and Under-19 sides, and would look to translate that success to the highest level.
Given Sharma’s experience and ability to keep things simple, along with Dravid’s eye for detail and preparation in the back room, it is likely that Rahul and Pant would be understudies to Sharma for now.
In this context, the 14 bilateral T20Is India will play in the next year will be crucial for the new captain and coach to shape their team for the World Cup. It will be a transition period, and a hectic one at that.
This new journey begins with India taking on New Zealand at home later this month. The first match will be at Jaipur’s Sawai Mansingh Stadium.
Said former India pacer Ajit Agarkar: “If there was not a World Cup next year, you would want to look at long-term [captaincy]. If you look at the IPL record, Rohit is the frontrunner. The other two have been around as leaders only in the last year and a half. For a World Cup, you want someone with experience.”
Added former chairman of selectors Kiran More: “Rohit is very good. He knows what he wants from players, has a game plan and is mature. He has played under M.S. Dhoni and with Sachin Tendulkar, and has learnt a lot.”
But what about T20 being a young man’s game? Rohit, after all, is 34. “You need not have young captains in T20s,” said More. “Look at Kane Williamson (New Zealand), Kieron Pollard (West Indies) and Eoin Morgan (England); they are all experienced players.”
Pravin Amre, who has closely watched Rohit play for Mumbai and has observed Pant as Delhi Capitals assistant coach, said the choice would depend on what the BCCI wants. “If the BCCI wants to promote a future captain, it will look at Rahul or Pant. If the priority is to win an ICC trophy now, then experience should matter. Do you want a skipper who will win you cups in 2022-23 or a player who will lead the team for the next five years? It is entirely dependent on the team management.”
Currently, the sense of urgency within the BCCI to win an ICC event outweighs plans to install and groom a long-term captain. Though the country is home to the high-voltage, star-studded IPL, India’s only T20 World Cup win came before the league was launched—in the inaugural 2007 edition. Since the first IPL season in 2008, India has reached the World Cup final once, losing to Sri Lanka in Bangladesh in 2014.
“With another T20 World Cup next year, you need someone with experience to lead, which I think is Rohit,” said former India spinner Harbhajan Singh, who has played with Sharma for India and Mumbai Indians. “If [BCCI] is thinking long term, I feel someone like Jasprit Bumrah can be given the responsibility. He is a champion bowler and a certainty to start in the playing XI.”
For Amre, a point in Sharma’s favour is that he is “very popular” among teammates. Agreed Agarkar: “Rohit is a great guy. I have known him for 20 years now, and he is an easy guy to get along with. As captain, you need to have a feel for the game and he seems to have it. He is a captain in control on the field. Rohit is his own man.”
He is also a team man. “I remember a low-scoring game in the IPL versus Rising Pune Supergiant,” said Harbhajan. “He takes a lot of advice from teammates on the field, which is important. You cannot do your own thing in a pressure game.”
Sharma is also known to make the youngsters in the team feel comfortable. “A junior player can easily approach him and share his views on what can be done,” he added. “Also, he will always give the bowler the first shot (regarding setting fields and plans for batsmen). If that does not work, he will tell the bowler what to do. He is aware of the mindset of his bowlers and is spot on with his bowling changes.”
There is also the question of whether the change in T20I captaincy will spill over to the ODI format as well. India will host the 2023 ODI World Cup, and there would be high expectations to lift the trophy at home, a la 2011. That could be Kohli’s last chance to win an ICC ODI title as captain, and it remains to be seen whether the selectors will entrust him with that responsibility.
Following the ODI World Cup, there would be a generational shift, and perhaps that is when contenders like Rahul and Pant would be given the nod.
Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar said that Rahul can be Sharma’s deputy in the shortest format, even as Pant is earmarked as a future captain. There is reportedly talk among selectors that, if Sharma is rested for the upcoming New Zealand series, Rahul could be the stand-in captain. He had, on the tour to New Zealand in 2020, captained and won in a T20I after Sharma retired hurt while batting.
The Punjab Kings’ skipper recently found his lost mojo during the series in England and has made a comeback to all formats after a year-and-a-half-long lull.
Like Sharma, Rahul, too, is mostly unruffled on the field and is coming into his own as an IPL captain. Said former chief selector Sandeep Patil: “KL has the temperament to lead a team, but Rohit has cemented his place. KL has been consistent only since the England series.”
As for Pant, Gavaskar had praised his “street smartness” and ability to read the game and act immediately as traits that would make him a good “future captain”.
Also, Pant has age on his side; he is 24. Said Patil: “Rishabh has to wait; he has shown great skills as Delhi Capitals’ captain. I feel Rohit should be made skipper. He is calm; I see a bit of MSD in him. He does not panic, and his handling of the bowlers has been good. He is a good tactician.”
More thinks Pant would be ready by 2023. “Rishabh is yet to mature as a player. He is growing in the IPL as a leader, and he can be thought of as a vice-captain or an understudy. He is captaincy material for the future. He is street smart, his progress in Test cricket has been fantastic, but he needs to do well in white-ball cricket. He needs to win matches first, especially T20s. He is my student, but he has yet to deliver on his talent.”
Added Amre: “Rishabh is a match-winner, he is young. I see shades of Dhoni in him. He likes to take responsibility, be it keeping, captaining or batting. He is more for the future.”