VIRAT KOHLI AND TEST CAPTAINCY

The essence of being a great captain is empowering, motivating and instilling self belief in your team; putting your team first and the self later; building correct team values and working ethics. The captain should firstly work on building stronger individuals who are resilient to man up against adverse match situations. Keeping these points in mind let’s ask our self a question; is Virat Kohli the best man to captain India's test team?

The 26 years old Virat Kohli is no doubt one of the finest batsmen going around and his four centuries in Australia is a testament to his batting credentials. But it is his aggressive, arrogant and self-styled images which may become a hindrance. The in-your-face attitude is fine if used as a strategy in match situations but if the aggression boils over a takes over the emotions you could not only risk losing the match but face the prospects of a dressing down from the match referee along with earning a black mark against your name and the teams.

Let’s look at some of the recent on-field incidents involving Virat; the dip in form on the 2014’s England tour had such an adverse effect that the normally jovial and aggressive Virat was seen quite low and subdue. It’s another matter that Dhoni captained that side otherwise imagine the team looking at him for inspiration and found him fighting his internal demons. And who can forget the Adelaide test when Virat went for the win in the fourth innings, which was commendable but once the danger of losing the test came about he should have shut up shop and played out for a draw. And finally the recently concluded Bangladesh drawn one off test match series also threw up an interesting point when Virat selected five bowlers (three pacers and two spinners). One should commend the positive move but why share the new ball with Ashwin if you have bowlers who can clock 140+ kph. The persistent rains may have played big part in Virat’s decision making but what does it show, Virat’s indecision. If he felt his best bowling combination was three pacer and two spinners then stick with that theory why go back on the decision and especially if you have not used it properly first.

The road of team captaincy is a long and precarious where only the finest survive. The job demands constant appraisal of ideas, unflinching dedication towards team members and 24*7 thinking about ways to improve not only your own game but also help out other members to raise their game also.