5 reasons why Ravichandran Ashwin might make a better captain than Virat Kohli

#5 The genius’ curse

For all the genius, he possessed, Sachin Tendulkar wasn’t as astute a tactician as Sourav Ganguly was. Ganguly was better than Dravid too as a skipper. That is because captaincy is generally not about your own genius. It is about how you understand your men and get the most out of them.

In Tendulkar’s defence, he had a mediocre side but then he was a reluctant leader. Kohli is not a reluctant leader and gives clarity to his men, but at times, he also gives the opponent batsmen too much credit and respects them too much. While Kohli, the batsman, makes impossible things look possible, he shouldn’t expect every batsman to be able to do that.

His own abilities partially explain why he wastes fielders in weird positions. An excellent example is how often he plugs the midwicket for Jadeja and the cover for Ashwin, instead of encouraging batsmen to play against the spin. While he is supremely wristy and manages it beautifully himself, not everyone can do so and those needless fielders are better off in attacking positions.

Ashwin once again, as a bowler, would probably hit the right balance between attack and defence.