4 Indian cricketers who could have been great captains
Unlike football, a captain's job in cricket is not merely a formality. It requires a person who has the requisite skills, temperament and the desired cricketing acumen.
It is a specialist's job, history has shown that a great batsman or a great bowler who were made captains on the basis of their greatness as a batsman or as a bowler often proved to be disastrous. Then there were some examples like Mike Brearley who played as specialist captains for their respective teams.
Indian cricket has witnessed some great captains. Saurav Ganguly's name instantly comes to mind when we talk about great Indian captains. Ganguly was known for his man-management skills, which gave India many great cricketers like Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, MS Dhoni and Zaheer Khan. Dhoni was a great captain in one-dayers, the way he used to handle spinners in the middle overs was quite remarkable.
These great leaders are on one end of the spectrum and on the other end of the spectrum are those Indian players who could have been great leaders, if they would have got sufficient opportunities. Let's take a look at them:
#1 Gautam Gambhir
Gautam Gambhir, who was one of the mainstays of Indian batting during the period from 2008 to 2011, could have been a great captain for India. Unfortunately for him, during the tenure he played most of his cricket for India, there was no vacancy for captain's post. Dhoni was firmly at the helm during this period. In Dhoni's absence, Gambhir got to captain India during 6 one-dayers and India won all 6.
Gambhir showed his captaincy acumen during his IPL stint. KKR - a team which was struggling to find its feet in IPL before Gambhir was appointed the captain, went on to win two IPL titles under Gautam Gambhir. The way he handled players like Sunil Narine and Manvinder Singh Bisla, speaks a lot about his man management skills.
Sunil Narine's batting skills (who plays as an all-rounder in T-20 cricket nowadays) were discovered under Gautam Gambhir's captaincy. If Gambhir, who got ICC Test cricketer of the year of the year award in 2009, would have carried on his rich vein of form as an Indian batsman, then India might have witnessed a great spell under captain Gambhir, but, unfortunately, that was not to be.