Six captains in as many months: Indian cricket's leadership challenge

In 2022, the Indian cricket team have played six series in which Rohit Sharma has led in only three and the rest of the times different players took charge

For cricket fans looking to make memes the inspiration these days is the Indian cricket team changing six captains in six months after since Virat Kohli was removed from the role in January. Rohit Sharma, the regular skipper, and BCCI president Sourav Ganguly have said they do not have any control over the issue.

“I fully agree that it is not ideal to have seven (including Kohli) different captains in such a short span of time but it has happened because of an unavoidable situation. Like Rohit was all set to lead in South Africa in white-ball but before the tour, got injured. So we had KL (Rahul) leading in ODIs and then for this recent SA home series, KL got injured one day before the series would start,” Ganguly told PTI about the captaincy changes.

After Rohit became all-format captain, India have played six series. Rohit led in three series and in the rest, three different people got charge of the team.

In the series against South Africa in South Africa, KL Rahul led India. Then in the T20I series against South Africa in India, which took place post-IPL 2022, Rahul got injured and Rishabh Pant was made India captain. Since Pant was to play the fifth Test in England, on its Ireland tour of two T20Is, India was led by Hardik Pandya in June 2022. 

Rohit, who was preparing to lead India in his first Test assignment as full-time captain outside the home turf, eventually got injured and Jasprit Bumrah, the Test vice-captain led India against England in the fifth Test from July 01 to 05, 2022.  

For the ODI part of India’s West Indies tour beginning on July 22, Shikhar Dhawan has been named India captain. He will be the sixth captain in a span of seven months. Since Rohit, Virat, Pant, Pandya and Bumrah wanted to rest from the ODI series and Rahul is still Injured.

Former captain Sunil Gavaskar said that Indian cricketers are asking for too much rest. In a comment on a TV show, he said, “I do not agree with this concept of players resting. Not at all. [if] You don't take rest during IPL, then why ask for it while playing for India? I don't agree with it,” he said.

For such opinion, Rohit Sharma said that when settled players rest, newer ones get an opportunity to play for India. "It's something we have prepared,” said Rohit while answering a question from Nick Knight during toss in the first T20I against England, on why India is fielding so many different playing 11s and captains. “We know the scheduling, we got to have the understanding, that players will be swapped every now and then. You can create your bench strength as well, a lot of opportunities for guys to come out and play,” he added.

With the Asia Cup in August and the T20 World Cup 2022 in October, India should be playing with the same set of players. It would be interesting to see the approach regarding the upcoming five-match T20I series in West Indies, for which the squad has still not been announced.