Jasprit Bumrah was named India’s 36th Test skipper ahead of the Edgbaston Test. This could be big news for some of his fans, but if former cricketers are to be believed, this might not be the correct decision. While former England cricketer Ashley Giles said this could ‘confuse’ India’s best bowler at the moment, Wasim Jaffer opined that Cheteshwar Pujara could have been given the baton.
“That’s the interesting point.. Giving the captaincy to your most potent bowler and your strike bowler. And we’ve seen in the past that this can cause some confusion just for the bowler and captain himself. When do they bowl themself, how much do they bowl? And that’s why we perhaps don’t see fast bowlers captaining international teams in test matches that much particularly in recent times,” Giles told ESPNCricinfo.
India have never been trustworthy of giving leadership roles to fast bowler. Maybe that is the reason that Kapil Dev was their last Test captain who last played a match as captain in 1987. Since then it is the likes of Sunil Gavaskars, Sachin Tendukars who were preferred and handed the jobs with all the conviction.
Meanwhile, Jaffer also made a crucial point, saying that Pujara should have been preferred over Bumrah as the bowler had no first-class captaincy experience. On the other hand, Pujara had captained his state team on numerous occasions.
“I have seen Pujara lead in first-class cricket. He is a decent enough leader. He has played 90 (95) odd Tests, so I feel it would have made more sense to go with him,” Jaffer said on ESPNCricinfo.
“Bumrah was vice-captain previously so obvious for him to become captain but knowing the importance of the match, knowing that the series is on the line, I would have been tempted to look at Cheteshwar Pujara. Bumrah hasn’t captain at all. For him to lead in such a Test without experience ut you never know. Bumrah looks intelligent, and has got great game sense so he might surprise us as Hardik Pandya did,” Jaffer added.
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