4 potential successors of MS Dhoni - Who will be India's next Test captain?
The question of the next Indian Test captain after MS Dhoni is one that will require answers in the imminent future. Dhoni is now 33 years old and has been in-charge of the Test team for the last 6 years, and he looks increasingly weary as a result.
The fact that India’s overseas Test record under his watch has been desperately poor hasn’t helped his cause either, with there being constant scrutiny from the fans and the media alike over his tactics.
While Dhoni is a shrewd tactician in the shorter formats where the requirement is containing runs rather than looking for wickets, the same cannot be said when it comes to Test cricket. He is also a vastly better player in the shorter formats as opposed to Test cricket, where he has numerous problems against the moving ball outside off-stump and is yet to score a hundred outside Asia.
Given that is the case, I wouldn’t be hugely surprised if Dhoni decides to quit Test cricket after India’s Test series against Australia later this year.
He had spoken a couple of years back of how he might have to give up any one format of the game in order to prolong his international career. It looks like that time might be coming sooner rather than later. He is an invaluable asset in limited-overs cricket which India would do well in making use of for another 3-4 years, and for that to happen, the selectors will need to find an alternative captain in Test cricket.
There are not a plethora of outstanding captaincy candidates at the moment for the selectors to choose from, and therefore, they have no option but to make the best use of what they have got. Let’s not forget that Dhoni himself was only promoted to the captaincy on the basis of a suggestion by Sachin Tendulkar, and backed by Dilip Vengsarkar, the then chairman of selectors, and that decision hasn’t panned out too badly.
Virat Kohli
This might not be the best time to talk about Virat Kohli’s captaincy credentials considering his horrendous run of low scores in the ongoing tour of England. However, Kohli’s poor run in England is just an aberration, and there is no doubt that he’ll be back among runs very quickly.
He has been the standout performer for India with the bat across all formats over the last 2-3 years and is the most obvious candidate to replace Dhoni at the helm of affairs. The fact that Kohli has been the stand-in captain in recent times whenever Dhoni is rested or injured, gives a clear hint that the selectors think likewise.
The fact that Kohli, who is also the current captain of his franchise, Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL, has already captained India in a few one-day internationals apart from having lifted the Under-19 World Cup in 2008 as captain, should hold him in good stead when he will, most likely, be entrusted with the responsibility of being the heir to Dhoni’s throne.
Ravichandran Ashwin
Ashwin looks like one of those cricketers who has all the makings to be a good captain. This is despite the fact that he has very little experience of captaining a cricket team at the senior level, if any at all.
Yet he, behind Kohli, is probably the most likely candidate to take over as captain if and when the opportunity arises. He is the fastest Indian to 100 Test wickets in addition to having scored two Test centuries already and is one of the more reliable performers in the team (at least in subcontinent). There have been some questions raised over his bowling overseas, but expect him to improve on that front as he plays more often.
He also comes across as a smart thinker of the game whenever he speaks and is engaging in his interactions with the media, which can only help as captain as Michael Clarke has found out.
Cheteshwar Pujara
Pujara is a long-term option for the position of next Test captain, taking into consideration the workload of cricketers who captain across all 3 formats of the game. If Kohli or Ashwin are given the one-day captaincy, then Pujara might be a good choice for Tests in order to ease the workload of the one-day captain.
Pujara’s largely one-paced batting coupled with the fact that his dodgy knee significantly hinders his agility in the field means that he is not going to be seriously considered in the limited-overs formats of the game at least for the time being. That might benefit Pujara as he can concentrate on Test cricket exclusively, and he is well-placed to be India’s No.3 for a long time to come.
The Indian selectors must be rating Pujara’s tactical nous highly too as they have already given him a taste of captaincy in the longer format of the game, having appointed him India A captain for 4-day matches against South Africa A and West Indies A last year.
Gautam Gambhir (?)
Three years back, Gambhir was doing extremely well for India at the top of the order in all formats and was considered the hot favourite to take over the captaincy from Dhoni at some stage in the future, but his struggles in the last 18-24 months have consigned him to the bench of late.
He did make a comeback after being out of the Test side for almost 18 months when he played against England last week at Old Trafford, but failed to make the most of his opportunity. If Gambhir can quickly get his form back, he still can’t be ruled out of being given the Test captaincy on a short-term basis if the selectors feel that the younger lot aren’t yet ready.