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Former West Indies captain Jason Holder had a brilliant T20I series at home against England recently. He was outstanding with the ball, claiming 15 wickets in five matches at an average of 9.60. Holder sealed the five-match series in the Windies' favor in memorable fashion, claiming four wickets in four balls in the final ODI. He finished the game with figures of 5 for 27 and was named Player of the Match as well as series.
His wonderful performances in England would have enhanced his chances of bagging an impressive contract at the upcoming IPL mega auction. The all-rounder has set his base price at ₹1.5 crore. The 30-year-old will be keen to continue his good work in the white-ball series against India to further boost his case.
The West Indies cricketer has played 26 IPL games so far, picking up 35 wickets and scoring 189 runs. He was among the few bright spots in an otherwise dismal campaign for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) last year.
IPL 2022 Auction: Jason Holder as captain? Not much chance
While it will be a big surprise if Holder goes unsold at the auction, we tell you three reasons why he is unlikely to be made skipper of any franchise.
#1 He might not be a certainty in the playing XI
Although Holder is in terrific form and has proven credentials in the T20 format, he won’t be a certainty in the playing XI, irrespective of the franchise that picks him at the auction. The cap on international players means overseas cricketers play every game only if they are absolute superstars of the sport or if the think tanks feel that they fit into the team combination perfectly.
If you look at Holder in the IPL over the years, he hasn't played every match for a franchise in a season. In fact, his highest is eight in the 2021 season for SRH. He played seven games in 2020, four in 2016, one in 2014 and six in 2013.
No doubt Holder has match-winning skills with both the bat and ball. But given the above numbers, the thought of any IPL franchise appointing him as captain is out of the question.
#2 Most franchises now prefer having Indian captains
There was a time when franchises were happy with picking overseas players as captains. In fact, the first two IPLs were won by teams with Australian leaders - Shane Warne (Rajasthan Royals, 2008) and Adam Gilchrist (Deccan Chargers, 2009). David Warner (SRH) and Eoin Morgan (KKR) were among the players who performed captaincy duties for their respective franchises in IPL 2021.
Franchises, though, are gradually realizing the pitfalls of having an overseas captain far outnumber the positives. The biggest drawback of having a foreign leader is that it becomes very difficult to drop him from the team in case he is not performing. This was pretty evident in the case of Morgan with KKR in IPL 2021.
If we look at the teams for IPL 2022, with the exception of SRH (Kane Williamson), most of the other franchises have Indian captains. Mumbai Indians have Rohit Sharma, Chennai Super Kings have MS Dhoni, Delhi Capitals have Rishabh Pant and Rajasthan Royals have Sanju Samson.
Even the two new franchises - Ahmedabad and Lucknow - have named Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul as leaders. As such, even if Holder gets picked up by Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), Punjab Kings (PBKS) or KKR, gaging the trend, it is unlikely that he will be made captain.
#3 Question marks over his captaincy skills
He may be a high-quality all-rounder but there are mixed views regarding Holder’s captaincy skills, even though he led West Indies for a reasonably long time. The all-rounder has been skipper in 37 Tests, 86 ODIs and three T20Is. Under him, the team won only 11 Tests and 24 ODIs, losing all three T20Is.
Of course, to be fair to the tall cricketer, it must be taken into account that Holder led a reasonably weak side across formats. Also, as a player his performances rarely dipped. He came up with a number of wonderful efforts with both bat and ball and has deservedly won a lot of praise for the same.
However, it is also equally true that experts have never viewed him as a towering leader or a brilliant tactician. It was more a case of the all-rounder getting the captaincy because the seniors were either revolting with the Windies cricket board or were unwilling to take up the role.
In short, he doesn’t have enough captaincy credentials for franchises to think of him as a leader, at least not in the T20 format.
