Captain’s puzzle: Who will become Rohit’s successor?

Jasprit Bumrah is the last person to lead India to a victory in the Test match. Jasprit Bumrah is the last person to lead India in a test match. However……

However, Jasprit Bumrah is not really the leader in becoming India’s next test captain, a position that was vacant from Rohit Sharma after 12 days of retirement.

Historically, India does not have many long-term “bowling captains” in the five-day competition. The magical left-arm spinner Bishan Singh Bedi performed 22 tests between 1976 and 1978 (imagine India had many test competitions in a short time). S. Venkataraghavan, one of his crime partners in the legendary spin quartet, was captained at two 60 World Cups in England in 1975 and 1979, although he only had five of his 57 Tests.

The all-round Nonpareil Kapil Dev was awarded leadership positions in two positions between 1983 and 1987, arguably India’s greatest match winner Anil Kumble, who finally succeeded his Karnataka teammate Rahul Dravid in 2007. But historically, India is not too friendly to the dome players than most countries.

If Bumrah does not necessarily fall into that bracket, it is mainly related to one of the more fashionable terms in the modern cricket dictionary, workload management. After Rohit’s abnormal departure from the game, playing at Sydney cricket in his last test with India, Bumrah did not have a lasting distance while a lower back injury lasted, which prevented him from bowling in Australia’s second innings and bowling in Australia’s second innings. Later it was identified as a “stress reaction”, and the injury failed him for three months.

Bumrah has also encountered back problems in the past and even needed correction surgery in April 2023. Given that he is the unquestionable spearhead of the attack, India must deal with him with wit, care, caution and common sense wherever they play. Don’t wrap him in lint, but make sure he is not hit to the ground and his body is “managed” to prevent another burst on his back. Bumrah is Bumrah’s unique move, and is 31 years old. He is a smart cricketer, a strong and investing game student who has made it – and has become an amazing captain. But India needs Bumla, more than Captain than Baumla.

Despite the long gap between the first and second tests, followed by the third and fourth tests in England this summer, the Pacers in Gujarat will compete in all five games in the first test after India.

It would be great if he stays in the right form and finishes the series without a single game. But if he does need a break to recharge mentally and physically recover – this is a possibility that depends on one’s point of view – then it will be necessary to temporarily intervene in the game here, rather than the stage where the national team begins to rebuild, rather than the ideal situation.

Indeed, when nominated captains are injured or banned (as they once once, mainly to overestimate the violation), their representatives are forced to step in, but these are situations that are beyond control. As far as Bumrah is concerned, it’s hard not to entertain his body fears rather than believing that he might need to skip the test in the series, for obvious reasons. It’s a need for continuity and a stable, stable leadership figure, which means more than anything else to the senior decision-making group within Indian cricket – chief selector Ajit Agarkar and head coach Gautam Gambhir intermediate primary school have to turn to someone else outside of Bumrah, but it may cause the latter’s desires and ambitions.

Who is “other than Bumla?” In every way, it’s obviously a very simple choice – Shubman Gill, who runs a great ship with the Gujarat Titans in this year’s IPL and he admits himself that he likes the captain’s responsibility, he says he always lets him participate in the game.

Earlier this year, all the large high-priced names in India appeared in the Ranji Trophy in their respective states when the cricket control board required all international players to play cricket around their national responsibilities, where possible. Rohit was still the test captain at the time and was happy to play against Ajinkya Rahane in Mumbai, who beat Chamu & Kashmir, while Kohli’s Delhi against the Rail’s captain Ayush Badoni, who also led Rishabh Pant to meet Rishabh Pant in Saurashtra.

But not that Jill. The 25-year-old was not only happy but also eager to take over the ins rope when he returned to the Punjab setting, when they played against Karnataka at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore in late January. “Being a captain has always got you involved in the game,” he said at the end of the game. At the end of the game, he followed up four innings in the second inning with a 102 shot in the first game, even though his team fell to one loss. “As a person, I love being involved in the game and what is happening. It’s best as a player when I keep participating in the game.”

Gill wasn’t very good in his first season as captain with the Titans when he took over from Hardik Pandya last year, but this year he was particularly praised for his running on the boat, calm and calm under pressure, wise decisions, and his smart decisions, as well as his human management and tactical efforts.

In many ways, captains are more challenging as captains with the International Clothing and the captain of the Jill team. He is the deputy of the championship trophy that India won in Dubai in March, leading the Indian team on a five-match Twenty20 international tour in Zimbabwe in July, where tourists won the match 4-1. He has time to be with him, he can grow into a role with the support of the head coach and other senior members, and he ticks so many boxes that it’s easy to stop looking straight ahead of him.

But, as Mahendra Singh Dhoni so famously said, in India, every praise is “but”. In Gill’s case, it must be: “But his record outside the subcontinent is pretty average, isn’t he?”

Overseas struggle

It must also be admitted. Gill’s debut in Australia in 2020-21 was unlimited success. As one of several inexperienced members of a team, they have been losing their established names with shocking regularity – one after another, Virat Kohli, Mohammed Shami, Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ashwin, R. Ashwin, Hanuma Vihari and Bumrah are excluded from each stage at each stage because one or one another performs more than Gill. In the joy of Pant’s sensational unbeaten 89, making India in the Gabba robbery of the Decider, Gill’s fluent 91 initiates the footnote of a successful chase of 328.

But since that tour, Jill has struggled for influence when he left Asia. After January 91, 2021, his highest score in 18 innings in non-Asian countries was 36. Now, in the absence of Rohit, did he move a place to the top of the order? Or, in Kohli’s retirement, did he move a place to fourth, a place Kohli has embellished for the past three decades, and before him, the unparalleled Sachin Tendulkar? Will the Captain rekindle his love for the Great Run outside Asia? Will he still suppress him. If running continues to be difficult to achieve, will his frustration be in trouble?

So, if it’s not Jill, who is it? Maybe someone has led the country before and cited this in all three formats? Perhaps the most advanced professional batsman on the side? Maybe the guy who debuted in December 2014, got a century in the next test a week later and had international tons of each of the three formats that represented the country for the first time?

Rahul. |Picture source: File Photo: Getty Images

Why not kl rahul? Rahul took 58 tests, but like Gill (35.05 out of 32 tests), he averaged a moderate-33.57, and in all respects, he ran 12-15 times per inning than he should have. There is a school of thought that he is now, free, without the mental constraints of his own best shots, and should let him do so. Then, there is another insistence that his mindset inspired various batting revolutions, which is exactly what called the test captain to award him. Rahul is only 33 years old and may be able to help Gill and Pant during a period of apprenticeship, after which, about two years later, the ins ropes can change hands.

India alternates between solid succession plans – Kohli after Sourav Ganguly, Kohli and the odd left field pan and the odd left field pan, such as the latter when it quit in early 2000. Will Jill fit the bill?