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

At the outset, let me get you acquainted with couple of disclaimers.

Disclaimer 1: For all his brilliance over the last year, Ashwin has still not proven himself in England, New Zealand, South Africa and Australia, something that’ll determine his true place amongst legends and allow us to take him as a serious captaincy contender. Kohli didn’t do well in England either, but he will always have Casablanca, I mean, Australia.

Disclaimer 2: This article doesn’t necessarily mean I don’t like Kohli. I have been one of his biggest fans over a long period of time. Sooner than later, I will also write an article on things Kohli does well as a captain, and there are quite a few of them but today is not the day.

Once the disclaimers are out of the way, the point of the article really is to look at how Kohli’s superhuman batting skills are overshadowing his obvious inadequacies as a captain and the fact that bowlers are often overlooked for captaincy role. What would particularly irk a lot of Indian fans is the fact that right through his career, Dhoni, the captain, received a lot of flak, mostly deserved, for letting a game drift and not really attacking.

Kohli seemed like an antidote for that - young, energetic, ebullient, aggressive and dominating. One thought, he would be India’s version of a Michael Clarke, if not Steve Waugh himself. However, Day 2 of the fourth Test provided a classic example of what Kohli lacks as a skipper.

An obvious contender for the spot is Ashwin, unarguably India’s MVP over the last one year. Here are five reasons that go in favour of Ashwin, the skipper.

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#1 The ability to contribute across skills

Captaincy is sometimes about confidence, which is why opponents often target the captains. Below-par performance almost always affects captaincy. In such a scenario, Ashwin is less vulnerable compared to Kohli.

That is largely because Ashwin is a genuine all-rounder and he has Kohli to thank for that huge promotion to No.6. Ashwin has been not only India’s best bowler over the last one year but also one of its best batsmen and most consistent. That gives him greater leeway and breathing space.

We cannot rule out how brilliant Kohli the fielder is and how bad Ashwin is in that department, but Ashwin still offers more as a player, especially on difficult surfaces, although only marginally so! Kohli is India’s highest run-getter in the last 2 years scoring 2104 runs at 60.11.

Ashwin is not bad himself, fifth on that list, scoring 855 runs at 31.66. Besides, there is the small matter of Ashwin’s 134 wickets at 21.36, with Ravindra Jadeja a distant second with 54 wickets.

#2 The cricket nerd’s player

Ever followed an Ashwin interview? It is a cricket nerd’s delight. Ashwin rarely gives a boring interview. He rarely gives platitudes and clichés. He talks beautifully about the game, the nuances of the game, the strategies and tactics.

Well, you do not make someone the captain of the team because he is a good speaker. But, Ashwin gives the impression of a man who thinks a lot about the game. It helps if your skipper is a true statesman. Kohli, on the other hand, hasn’t really arrived when it comes to handling the media.

He is their darling, the blue-eyed boy of Indian cricket, no doubt, because of his batsmanship but as a captain, he rarely goes beyond saying the obvious things. Ashwin reminds one of Dravid, a well-read person who is intense about his cricket. Kohli is more in the Tendulkar mould, whose genius doesn’t really transform into articulation.

#3 Composure

Kohli, the player, is a remarkable paradox. He is arguably cricket’s greatest chaser, winning impossible matches with his bat and performs amazingly well under pressure. The key term there is ‘with the bat’. But, as a captain, Kohli seems a different man. He is fidgety and often very animated.

The last thing a team needs is its captain relaying news about its mental comfort to the opponents. Kohli celebrates wildly and flinches and grimaces often as well. Sometimes, it could put off the bowlers, when your captain seems panicky so often.

Ashwin on the contrary, exudes calmness, something which is obvious even when he has a bat in his hand. When it comes to his languidness, he is Laxmanesque, rarely showing the nervous energy that has come to define Kohli.

Kohli has done well over the last year but a big percentage of the matches he has captained have been in conducive situations. The Delhiite doesn’t look good when things are not going his way and he probably has to work on that.

A good example is Kohli’s response to DRS requests from his bowlers. He invariably calls on guts and is swayed a lot by Jadeja and Ashwin. He rarely looks at the keeper, who probably is the most important man for DRS calls.

#4 Tactics

Commentators have been bamboozled often during the India-England series with Kohli’s tactics or lack of it thereof. While Ashwin always seems to have plans and more plans for his batsman which he dips into with great elan while explaining them, Kohli lets the game drift, something that is baffling, given the kind of aggressive batsman he is.

Kohli likes dominating with the bat and often goes out of his way to intimidate the bowler, a remarkable trait that somehow goes missing when he is captaining. Long-on and deep point for struggling batsmen, not enough catching positions especially the gully when the ball is doing quite a bit, easy singles and bowling changes without considering the rhythm of the bowlers are some examples of how he has seemed switched off.

At one point during the England innings, Kohli had arguably, India’s weakest fielder in the park, Pujara (Ashwin was bowling) at mid-on which is the most important position, as the commentators screamed on air, for an off-spinner. He chases the ball a lot and doesn’t really get the angles right based on the amount of turn or the bowler bowling, something he probably would have seen Dhoni doing a lot of.

Ashwin would probably be Kumble’s successor in that department as a bowler, understanding bowlers better than the batsman-captain. He will also be aided by his intrinsic nature to keep experimenting.

#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.