Over the years, Indian cricket has been remarkably fortunate to have unearthed numerous leaders, not just captains, of great integrity and no little tactical acumen. Though there were several stalwarts before him, ‘Tiger’ Pataudi is credited with bringing a sense of ‘team’ to the national side, using his standing and charm to explode the divisive air of regionalism that dogged Indian cricket. Numerous worthy successors took the torch forward.
Interestingly, three of the modern masters of the game held the captaincy mantle for only a combined period of five and a half years or so. Sachin Tendulkar was captain across two terms, the first lasting 15 months and the second less than half that tenure. Rahul Dravid, one of India’s most successful skippers who oversaw Test series triumphs in the Caribbean and England after 35 and 21 years respectively, stepped down after two years; it’s one of those great travesties that he will be remembered more for India’s first-round exit at the 50-over World Cup in the Caribbean in 2007. Anil Kumble was the captain for a little over a year and a quarter, a tricky period when he showed exceptional statesman-like qualities on the tempestuous tour of Australia in 2007-08, a series rocked by numerous shockingly poor umpiring decisions, a vast majority of them going against India, and the Monkeygate scandal that threatened an early end after Andrew Symonds accused Harbhajan Singh of racist abuse.
Since the end of 2008, when Kumble retired midway through Australia’s tour of India, there have been three long-term, regular skippers — Mahendra Singh Dhoni for six years from 2008 till the end of 2014, Virat Kohli from 2015 to 2022, and Rohit Sharma for 34 months now. Dhoni was outstanding in the two white-ball formats but more defensive in Test-match action, perhaps because he felt he didn’t have the bowling attack to stay competitive overseas. Kohli brought new verve to the team, shaking up the established order with an uncompromising focus on fitness and on assembling a fast-bowling group that helped stack up overseas victories. Rohit, who had led Mumbai Indians to five IPL titles when he took charge of the Test team, brought greater empathy and understanding with him, drawing from his own painful experiences, allowing the youngsters to learn from their mistakes and establishing himself as a players’ captain.
India’s Jasprit Bumrah and Virat Kohli wait to walk onto the field at the start of day one of the fifth Test match between Australia and India at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
| Photo Credit:
AFP
Courageous call
Rohit’s unprecedented decision to stand himself down for the final Test against Australia in Sydney because he felt he didn’t deserve a place in the best XI for the decider hasn’t got the due it deserves. Mischievous whispers that he was nudged in that direction notwithstanding, it takes courage, selflessness and the ability to sift logic from emotion to arrive at a decision of such magnitude. It’s another matter that the man he made way for, Shubman Gill, didn’t justify his inclusion with two terrible strokes.
In Rohit’s absence, both from the first Test in Perth which he missed owing to the birth of his second child and in Sydney, Jasprit Bumrah took over as captain. The pacer supreme had previously led the team in England in the summer of 2022 in the last Test of a five-match series that had spilled over from 12 months earlier, and not with great success.
India allowed England to scale down 378 in the fourth innings for the loss of just three wickets at 4.93 runs per over despite posting 416 batting first, Bumrah finishing the game with five for 142 but going at 3.94 runs per over (Test career economy after 45 matches, 2.76).
Bumrah seemed to be chasing the game, a half-step slower tactically. India’s short-ball strategy on a flat deck where the ball came nicely on the bat was widely criticised but as Perth showed, that was a one-off. At the Optus Stadium, Bumrah was on top of his leadership game, inspiring his troops, eliciting energy and enthusiasm even though his batters had only post 150. It helped, of course, that he produced magic with the ball, his five-wicket haul primarily responsible for Australia being bowled out for 104.
Eight wickets for the fixture and his unquestionable influence on the 295-run win earned him the Player of the Match award. Bumrah was calm and unruffled throughout the game, different from Rohit in many ways and yet similar in his thought process. The continuity was striking, as was Bumrah’s equanimity when he dismissed a suggestion made in jest that he might want to continue in that role even on Rohit’s return.
Awe and adulation
Bumrah again fronted up at the SCG, but this time, there was neither individual success nor collective joy. Between Perth and Sydney, the legend of Bumrah grew massively in Australia, where there was respect for him even seven weeks back. Now, that respect has been supplemented by awe. By a tinge of envy. A smidgeon of dread. Massive apprehension. How do you play this guy with the crazy action, this guy who bucks all conventions of fast bowling? Who walks when you are supposed to charge in, who explodes in five or six steps, who delivers the ball from closer to the batter than anyone else, who makes the ball go this way or that without any discernible change in action? How?
In the first four Tests, Bumrah had 30 wickets, three five-wicket hauls. Along the way, he became the first bowler in Test history to reach 200 wickets at an average of less than 20. It was crazy, the attention and adulation he attracted. He put bums on the seat. Imagine that, an Indian fast bowler making waves in the land of Lillee and Thomson, McGrath and Lee and Starc and Cummins. Killing ‘em softly, with a smile, with humility and with greatness sitting lightly on his shoulders.
Like in Perth, Bumrah was given only a modest total to bowl with by his batters in Sydney — 185. He again struck early, with the wickets of Usman Khawaja and Marnus Labuschagne late on the first evening and first thing on the second morning respectively. His first spell was 6-0-20-2. He bowled three more overs in the second hour, and then the second over after the lunch break, when there were no outward signs of trouble. After that over, his 10th of the innings — and, as it turned out, his last of the tour — he had a long chat with Kohli, then walked briskly off the park. Ah, a temporary passing of the baton, we thought.
Million-dollar question
An over went by, and there was no sign of Bumrah. Ten minutes, and still no Bumrah. Twenty, ditto. Thirty, ditto. Then, as the clock ticked over to 2 pm, he emerged from the dressing room in his tracks and practice jersey, gingerly boarded an SUV and was driven to a nearby hospital for scans on his back following spasms. He batted on day three, couldn’t bowl in the second innings on what he called the ‘spiciest’ pitch of the series when Australia came out to chase 162. For whatever reason, injuries to Indian cricketers tend to assume the proportion of national secrets, so it’s no surprise that even after the Test ended, there was no official word on the exact nature of the injury, the extent of the damage, the future course of action. So much for transparency and honest forthrightness.
Bumrah is seen as the natural and logical successor to Rohit as and when. But the latest Sydney episode begs the question – should that be the case? The management of Bumrah’s workload has been one of the topics of great discussion in Indian cricket. How much does he play? How much does he rest? Which are the Tests where India can make do without him? When must he be rested, especially given that he had back surgery a couple of years ago, and that the back is beginning to bother him again – even if this turns out to be a one-off?
Can India appoint Bumrah the Test skipper and still be in a position to rest him mid-series, or even for an entire series? Does that bode well for continuity and stability in leadership? It’s true that by and large, the team philosophy won’t necessarily change from one captain to another in the matter of a Test or a series, but should we even get into that situation of possibility? Injuries are inevitable in competitive sport and more so in cricket, which places unusual demands on an individual’s body because most of the movements on the cricket field are unnatural.
The leadership group, of which Bumrah too is an integral part, must ask if it is the most commonsensical tack to punt on a key player with a history of injuries, a vital cog in the wheel who needs be handled with care and tact and for whom rest and recuperation is perhaps more important than for most others.
Bumrah has shown himself to be an inspirational, if not yet inventive, leader. But India need Bumrah the bowler more than Bumrah the captain. The temptation to overreach when one is in a decision-making role could seep into Bumrah’s thinking. There has been a marked reluctance on the part of the powers-that-be to invest in bowler-captains, especially fast-bowler-captains, for a specific reason. Bumrah doesn’t agree with that theory, nor does Pat Cummins, his Australian counterpart who is surrounded by a supremely skilled pace unit as opposed to the Indian, who has Mohammed Siraj and a rush of newcomers for support in the continued absence of Mohammed Shami. India can’t afford to have a grumpy Bumrah, for sure, but a grumpy Bumrah is still better than no Bumrah. What say?
Published – January 07, 2025 12:10 am IST
