Who will follow Virat Kohli as captain? Some obvious choices, but no striking ones

Rohit Sharma and K.L. Rahul are the obvious top contenders for the job of Indian cricket team captain after Virat Kohli. (Illustration by Suneesh K.)

Mike Brearley, the former England cricket captain renowned for his strategic acumen rather than batting prowess, qualified psychoanalyst and writer of The Art of Captaincy, On Form and On Cricket, once said that when someone asked him the definition of leadership, his answer was based on psychotherapy: it's comfort the trouble and trouble the comfortable. It summed up the essence of tough life, of what one needs in leadership, captaincy, psychotherapy and parenting, to be able to say things to people that they don’t want to hear from time to time and make it relatively palatable to them, Brearley said on a visit to Mumbai a few years ago.

Virat Kohli, who recently resigned as India’s Test captain, would seem to be someone able to tell people what they don’t want to hear from time to time, especially teammates. His exit from captaincy leaves Indian cricket in a bit of a flux because there is no clear replacement, no one groomed for the job and a few candidates with flawed resumes. 

Rohit Sharma is the most obvious choice to take over, as someone who can lead the country in all formats—Tests, One-day Internationals (ODI) and Twenty20 (T20). He has a proven leadership record, winning five titles as captain of Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League (IPL) with a calm, studied approach and street smarts that Mumbai cricket teaches. He has won eight of 10 ODIs as India captain, with a batting average of over a hundred in the matches won. But he is 34, with chronic fitness problems and has not held his place consistently in the Indian team since his Test debut nearly a decade ago. 

Sharma’s 43 Tests have got him a respectable average of over 45 but K.L. Rahul, the other captain contender, has played the same number of matches for an average of just over 35—a figure typical to wicketkeepers and all-rounders in international cricket. He has struggled to keep his place in the side, switching on and off with Mayank Agarwal and Shubman Gill, depending on availability and fitness.

While seen as an all-format cricketer (Rahul’s batting record in ODIs and T20s is much better), with a proactive PR machinery and marketable tattooed looks, Rahul is relatively inexperienced as captain. Just before he took over the captaincy of IPL team Kings XI Punjab, Rahul had said that focusing on something bigger, like the team, would help him mature as a player. When he led KXI for two seasons in 2020-21, the team finished sixth out of eight though he was among the top three scorers in the league in both seasons.

In the only Test he captained when Kohli was out injured, in South Africa recently, India lost the Test. While he was a sudden replacement—one argument can be that as vice-captain, one needs to be ready at all times—critics like Sunil Gavaskar said that Rahul seemed out of ideas as Dean Elgar batted the hosts to victory. Later, India lost the three-match ODI series 0-3 under Rahul’s captaincy. To make matters worse, in the third Test, Rahul joined Kohli in passing an un-leader-like exaggerated comment to the stump mic after a DRS review went against them: “The whole country is playing against 11 guys.”

In the second Test that Rahul captained, Rishabh Pant charged down the pitch to hit Kagiso Rabada in just the third ball he faced, only to be caught behind, in the second innings. The rash charge caused a predictable shout storm on social media. While Pant scored a century in the last Test that India lost, and had led the country to a historic win in Brisbane last January, his hit-or-miss approach has its detractors. 

Gavaskar, though, threw a spin in the middle of the captaincy debate by suggesting Pant as a candidate, a choice backed by some others, in case Sharma declines the role. As someone who plays all formats, Pant is a wild card and is only 24 with limited experience. Gavaskar cited the example of Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, who became captain at 21 and learnt on the job to become a respected leader. “I think what we have seen with Rishabh Pant as the captain of Delhi Capitals in the IPL, I do believe he has the capability of taking Indian cricket forward and making it a very exciting team to watch,” he told PTI.

The two people who seem likely to miss out are Ajinkya Rahane, who led India to an improbable series win in Australia last year, and R. Ashwin. While Rahane, who has not lost a Test as captain in six matches, will find it difficult to hold his place in the Test team owing to a series of batting failures, Ashwin is challenged by legacy—Indian cricket seldom favours bowlers as captain. The smart spinner with an enviable Test record is not favoured for shorter formats, which may weigh against him. 

There is no clear consensus on whether it’s better to have one captain across formats—which Kohli was—or to have different leaders—like England does. Beyond numbers, Indian cricket captaincy is also about charismatic, forceful characters, from Pataudi through Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Sourav Ganguly, M.S. Dhoni and Kohli. With the potential candidates in fray, it would take effort to build loyalty in the team and charisma may not be a visible virtue at the moment. But maybe it will develop with time and success, should one of the candidates pull off a long-term tenure.

Also read: Virat Kohli as captain: Role model or not?