Poor team management adding to team India's woes abroad
"Virat Kohli is a work-in-progress as a captain", the legendary West Indies captain Clive Lloyd told The Times of India as he expressed his views on the Indian skipper.
For worse or for better, in cricket, a player is often judged by his achievements in foreign conditions which not only tests his mettle technique-wise but mentally as well.
Anybody who comes through unscathed in such conditions will be revered as a modern-day great, the same stands true for a captain as well. For a sub-continent player, South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia (SENA) constitute these battlegrounds.
From the day Virat Kohli took over the mantle of captaincy in tests, his hunger to win on foreign soil has been quite evident both on and off the field. The decision to chase a humungous total of 364 rather than playing out a draw in the Adelaide test stands as a testament to Kohli's plans for world domination.
However, a number of decisions have let Kohli down in his path, let's take a look at them.
#1 Choosing Rohit over Rahane
Kohli's conquest started off this year with a 3-match series against the Proteas. A huge surprise was sprung when Rohit Sharma was selected ahead of the then vice-captain, Ajinkya Rahane. The rationale behind the move being, a flamboyant in-form Rohit would prove effective than Rahane, who had a poor series against Sri Lanka.
The experiment ended up with Rohit making scores of 11,10,10,47 in the first two tests and Rahane reclaiming his spot at Johannesburg, scoring a match-winning 48 in the 2nd innings, on what was deemed as the toughest pitch of the tour.
Expectedly, this move received a lot of criticism, but both coach Shastri and captain Kohli snubbed it off, saying it was rather easy to question on hindsight. While that's fair, being blind to Rohit's struggles against pace and swing might have cost India the series.
#2 Playing musical chairs among openers
Indecisive opening pair selection
"Important to back your top XI" - Virat Kohli (prior to a one-off test against Bangladesh, 2017)
Shikhar Dhawan had his fair test of foreign conditions in the initial part of his career. His disappointing time in South Africa in 2013 where he averaged just 19 in the two tests was contrasted by knocks of 115 and 98 in New Zealand.
However, he was once again dropped in 2014, after a poor show against the Aussies which led to K L Rahul making his debut. Rahul scored his maiden century in the subsequent match. Since then Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan and K L Rahul have seen themselves don the role of openers.
While Vijay has always been the first choice opener, it has been a tough choice to decide between Dhawan and Rahul. Their contributions with the bat along with their battles against injuries have added to the confusion. However, Dhawan being the sole left-hander in the squad has provided an edge over Rahul.
So far in 2018, India have started off the first match with Vijay and Dhawan only to replace Dhawan with Rahul in the very next match. This has been the case against both, South Africa and England.
While India's short rope policy baffles everyone, what is important to notice is that, since 2013, team India has been trying out Dhawan in foreign conditions with little success.
#3 The case of Bhuvaneshwar Kumar
Despite team India's dismal performance against England in 2014, losing the series 3-1, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar topped everybody's list of positives to take away.
In his first series, at the land where cricket had its origin, Bhuvi was India's best bower with 19 scalps at an impressive average of 26.63. With the bat, he was the 4th best for India, scoring 3 half centuries, compiling 247 runs in 10 innings.
With an increase in pace and an impressive performance against South Africa, Bhuvi was supposed to be leading India's pace attack.
However, was ruled out of the first 3-tests, again credit to team India's management for fielding him in the final ODI. Even as he was racing against time with a back injury, he was declared match fit and replaced Umesh Yadav who had given a decent performance until then
As Clive Lloyd said, Virat is still a work-in-progress as captain. However, If Virat wants to realise his dream of conquering SENA countries, he needs the best think tank by his side. A little modification to the popular saying applies aptly here, a captain is as good as his team and his team management.