The ace Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has voiced his opinion on IPL captaincy, touching on an intriguing aspect of leadership in the cash-rich tournament on his YouTube channel.
The ace Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has voiced his opinion on IPL captaincy, touching on an intriguing aspect of leadership in the cash-rich tournament on his YouTube channel. Ashwin feels IPL teams should announce their captain before the IPL auction for the next season.
The 37-year-old stated that if a team decides its leader before the auction, the captain can form his strategy and select a few players of his choice in the market to make a team of his liking. Ashwin, who has previously led Punjab Kings (PBKS) – formerly Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) – in the tournament, feels a captain will take responsibility for his players if he gets to pick his team in the auction.
Taking KL Rahul as an example, Ashwin said when Rahul was the captain of the Punjab Kings, he didn’t get the desired results. However, Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) appointed him their captain before the mega auction, and Rahul’s leadership improved significantly.
“Even though KL Rahul started off his captaincy phase very averagely at Kings XI, he has gone to LSG, handpicked his own players and shown what he can do. This is something I profess. Even when I became the captain of the Kings XI, the team was already picked, and they decided that I should be the captain after the auction. But when a captain picks his side during an auction, it is different as he is the one who is going to play with them, take responsibility for their actions and know their fallacies.”
Iterating his point, Ashwin also revealed his chat with KL Rahul on the same matter. Rahul replied if he played with players of his preference, he would realise his mistakes and work on them.
“The captain will have better control in that place. I also talked to KL about it. He said that in this case, he would realise his mistake if he played around people with whom he was comfortable. The like-to-like replacements are much more thought out and clear, is what he said. So, has that made a difference in his captaincy stint? Has it been fruitful for KL? Of course.”
Ashwin has made a valid point here. When a captain leads his national side, most of the players are selected by him, helping to keep the environment healthy.
Not knowing about his teammates was one of the most significant reasons for Aiden Markram’s disastrous campaign as Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) captain in IPL 2023. He is the same player who led Sunrisers Eastern Cape, the sister franchise of SRH in South Africa, to two consecutive titles in SA20.
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