Big dent to KL Rahul’s long-term captaincy ambitions

Time for ‘post-mortem’ after India lose ODI & Test series against SA.

NT Correspondent

A stand-in captain, who seemed stunningly short of ideas, few seniors at the business end of their careers and a dated approach in white-ball cricket -- India’s woes during the tour of South Africa were many, turning what started memorably into an eminently forgettable outing.

The signs were ominous even before they departed with now-former Test skipper Virat Kohli’s much-publicised acrimony with top BCCI officials.

The entire episode didn’t leave the team in good stead and once there it all went haywire after the opening Test win.

Stand-in ODI captain KL Rahul was then left to do a lot with too little at his disposal against an opposition, which had gained invaluable confidence.

In the end, it turned out to be a nightmare with dark clouds hovering over the future of this Indian team and no sign of ‘VIBGYOR’ in the Rainbow Nation.

Kohli & his problems

Kohli might not admit but the former captain is going through the toughest phase as a cricketer after having given up captaincy in two out of three formats and being sacked in another.

But Because he is Kohli and in a different class, he managed a fine 79 in the lost third Test, where he looked the best.

The meltdown at Cape Town with his misdirected anger at broadcasters for a DRS gone wrong also tarnished his reputation and letting the game drift away with mindless antics wasn’t his finest hour when it came to judging his temperamental.

KL Rahul bungled his lines

But if one is very blunt, KL Rahul perhaps blew his chance towards being a long-term option across formats once Kohli relinquished Test captaincy after losing the Test series.

“Did KL Rahul by any stretch look like a captain to you?’’ a senior BCCI official counter-questioned PTI when asked if he would be considered for the Test captaincy factoring in Rohit Sharma’s track record of injuries.

‘He did more than a decent job and a lot about captaincy is how your players execute the skills. We were short on the ODI side. He will grow constantly and get better as he leads more,’’ Dravid’s observation drifted towards the old adage of a captain is as good as his team.

Lack of fearlessness in Test matches

What stuck out like a sore thumb is a fact that even the biggest of Proteas fans couldn’t have imagined that a team facing huge transitional problems and a coach due to face a commission inquiring into his racial misconduct, would turn the heat on and win five out of six international matches and that too at a canter.

The South Africans played good cricket but were liberally helped by an Indian team that didn’t walk the talk on its proclaimed cricketing philosophies.

Pant’s approach & Shreyas’ weakness

The time has probably come for the Indian team to accept that Rishabh Pant will come as a package with dismissals that enrage people and then play a gem that only he can play.

But the bigger problem is Shreyas Iyer, whose technical deficiency against the short ball has been badly exposed on this tour although it has been a talk in the Indian cricketing circles.

Chahar & Shardul only silver lining

If there is one positive fron this tour, it is Shardul Thakur and Deepak Chahar taking extra initiative to show that they can be used as multi-skilled players in future, something that had impressed Rahul Dravid too.

‘We would like to give him a few more games along with Shardul and some other people as well who can step up in the course of time in next year or so, and hopefully give us that depth in the side,” Dravid said.

‘No batters can chip in with couple of overs’

“What’s lacking about this particular Indian outfit is the batters that they have in the team, none of them chip in with three-four overs of bowling,” former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar told ESPNcricinfo.

‘KL had run out of ideas’

Former captain Sunil Gavaskar had backed Chahar’s inclusion in the XI after the first two losses, saying veteran fast bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who went wicketless in two matches and gave away too many runs, has lost his sting.

Gavaskar had also told TV channel India Today that captain Rahul “had run out of ideas” during opposition partnerships in the first two ODIs.