5 reasons why Ravichandran Ashwin might make a better captain than Virat Kohli
At the outset, let me get you acquainted with couple of disclaimers.
Disclaimer 1: For all his brilliance over the last year, Ashwin has still not proven himself in England, New Zealand, South Africa and Australia, something that’ll determine his true place amongst legends and allow us to take him as a serious captaincy contender. Kohli didn’t do well in England either, but he will always have Casablanca, I mean, Australia.
Disclaimer 2: This article doesn’t necessarily mean I don’t like Kohli. I have been one of his biggest fans over a long period of time. Sooner than later, I will also write an article on things Kohli does well as a captain, and there are quite a few of them but today is not the day.
Once the disclaimers are out of the way, the point of the article really is to look at how Kohli’s superhuman batting skills are overshadowing his obvious inadequacies as a captain and the fact that bowlers are often overlooked for captaincy role. What would particularly irk a lot of Indian fans is the fact that right through his career, Dhoni, the captain, received a lot of flak, mostly deserved, for letting a game drift and not really attacking.
Kohli seemed like an antidote for that - young, energetic, ebullient, aggressive and dominating. One thought, he would be India’s version of a Michael Clarke, if not Steve Waugh himself. However, Day 2 of the fourth Test provided a classic example of what Kohli lacks as a skipper.
An obvious contender for the spot is Ashwin, unarguably India’s MVP over the last one year. Here are five reasons that go in favour of Ashwin, the skipper.
#1 The ability to contribute across skills
Captaincy is sometimes about confidence, which is why opponents often target the captains. Below-par performance almost always affects captaincy. In such a scenario, Ashwin is less vulnerable compared to Kohli.
That is largely because Ashwin is a genuine all-rounder and he has Kohli to thank for that huge promotion to No.6. Ashwin has been not only India’s best bowler over the last one year but also one of its best batsmen and most consistent. That gives him greater leeway and breathing space.
We cannot rule out how brilliant Kohli the fielder is and how bad Ashwin is in that department, but Ashwin still offers more as a player, especially on difficult surfaces, although only marginally so! Kohli is India’s highest run-getter in the last 2 years scoring 2104 runs at 60.11.
Ashwin is not bad himself, fifth on that list, scoring 855 runs at 31.66. Besides, there is the small matter of Ashwin’s 134 wickets at 21.36, with Ravindra Jadeja a distant second with 54 wickets.