Jasprit Bumrah was appointed India’s 36th Test captain ahead of the Edgbaston Test. This may be big news for some of his fans, but if the former cricketers are to be believed, it may not be the right decision. While former England cricketer Ashley Giles said it could ‘confuse’ India’s best bowler at the moment, Wasim Jaffer said that Cheteshwar Pujara could have been handed the baton.
“It is interesting.. to captain your most powerful bowler and your strike bowler. And we have seen in the past that it can just create some confusion for the bowler and the captain himself. When do they bowl to themselves, how much do they bowl? And that’s why we probably don’t see fast bowlers captaining international teams in Test matches, especially in recent times,” Giles told ESPNcricinfo.
India has never been reliable enough to give a leadership role to a fast bowler. Perhaps this is the reason why Kapil Dev was their last Test captain who last played a match as captain in 1987. Since then Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar have been liked and given the task with full confidence.
Meanwhile, Jaffer also made an important point saying that Pujara should be preferred over Bumrah as the bowler did not have experience of first-class captaincy. Pujara, on the other hand, had captained his state team on several occasions.
“I have seen Pujara take the lead in first-class cricket. He is a very decent leader. He has played 90 (95) odd Tests, so I think it would have made more sense to go with him,” Jaffer said on ESPNcricinfo.
“Bumrah was the first vice-captain to become the captain, but knowing the importance of the match, knowing that the series is on the line, I would have been tempted to watch Cheteshwar Pujara. Bumrah doesn’t have a captain at all. You never know how to lead a test like this without the experience for that. Bumrah looks intelligent, and he has a very good grasp of the game, so he can surprise us as Hardik Pandya did,” Jaffer said.
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