If you were to look back in time and in history time and again you will see the ‘toppling’ of great leaders whether it be Julius Cesar or Napoleon for example. Even in todays day and age leaders are getting ‘toppled’ Saddam Hussain and being an example of that.
The sporting world is know different and in particular the cricketing world has seen some ‘great captains/leaders’ come and go. Cricketing greats such as Imran Khan, Kapil Dev and most recently Younus Khan have all been great leaders in their time and respective eras – but with everything in life everything must come to an end.
With the examples of Khan and Dev, here you have two world cup winning captains in 1992 and 1987 respectively. As is the way in life, everything comes to an end. India since 1987 have had some great captains in that era such as Mohammed Azharuddin, Sachin Tendaulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and most recently Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
Dhoni has been one of the most successful Indian captains in the modern era. The 32 year old has overseen title wins in the Champions trophy, T20 world cup and the 50 over world cup. Not to forget to mention the fact that India became the number one test side in test cricket.
A demoralising test series defeat to England in England, lead to speculation that MSD could be quitting his role as captain. What fuelled the speculation was that the 32 year old wicket-keeper batsmen appeared to suggest that he could leave his role as captain.
India though despite that initial speculation are still captained by Dhoni- but the current one day series against Sri Lanka India are captained by ‘star player’ Virat Kohli. India are playing this series to try and recuperate income from the abandoned series against West Indies due to a pay dispute between the West Indian players and their board.
Is this series a sign of things to come as far as the captaincy of the Indian national cricket team is concerned, will Kohli be the long term captain of India. The 26 year old Kohli ever since he entered the International scene was always talked about as a future captain.
The Royal Challengers Bangalore player has been captain of his franchise for the last two seasons. With in those two seasons it’s clear to see that the Delhi born batsmen does have the skills for the job. The four match series with Sri Lanka is currently going on at the moment – and in Kohli’s first game as captain in this series, India emphatically beat Sri Lanka.
The T20 winners were well beaten, chasing India’s mammoth 363-5 Ajikja Rahane and Shikar Dawan both hitting hundreds. Sri Lanka on the other hand were skittled out for just 194. In the Sri Lankan run chase only Mahela Jayawerdena made any sort of contribution, the former captain making an impressive 43 – before carelessly losing his wicket.
Although it was only one game Kohli’s captaincy was brilliant, the RCB skipper really used his bowlers well. Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav were really impressive. Sharma and Yadav took four and 2 wickets respectively, India will be hoping for of the same in the next match which starts tomorrow.
The Bearded Captain 