Whenever you think about the fast bowler captaining a side in international cricket, your mind will quickly think about Pat Cummins, the Australian captain. He has won the World Test Championship, retained the Ashes, and ODI World Cup 2023 ever since he became the captain of the side, if we don’t mention the bilateral. Most of the time he is on par with his strategies and on-field decisions.
But off late many teams have selected their bowlers for the leadership role, for example, Tim Southee for New Zealand, Shaheen Shah Afridi also had a brief stint as a captain, Rashid Khan as Afghanistan’s captain, and so on and so forth. Should India do the same? Let’s see.
Recently, in his interview with The Indian Express, the Indian pacer explained why fast bowlers excel as captains.
“I feel bowlers are smart people because they have to get the batsmen out,” Bumrah said.”Bowlers have to do the hard job and are not hiding behind a bat, they’re not hiding behind a flat wicket. We’re right in the firing line. When we lose a game, it’s usually the bowlers who are blamed. So it’s a hard job.
Bumrah also cited the example of Cummins and also named a few Pakistani pacers who did great in their leadership role.
“We’ve seen Pat Cummins doing really well. When I was a child, I’d seen Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis as captains. Kapil Dev has won us a World Cup. Imran Khan has won a World Cup for Pakistan. So, bowlers are the smart ones.”
Bumrah also dissected the leadership qualities of MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, and Rohit Sharma as the Indian’s ace-pacer has played under the captaincy of the above-mentioned players.
MS [Dhoni] gave me a lot of security, quickly. He has a lot of faith in his instinct, and doesn’t believe in a lot of planning.
“Virat [Kohli] is energy-driven, passionate, wears his heart on his sleeve. He pushed us in terms of fitness, and changed the narrative that way. Now Virat is not the captain, but he is still a leader. Captaincy is a post, but a team is run by 11 people.”
“Rohit [Sharma] is one of the few captains who has empathy towards bowlers, despite being a batter,” the pacer added.
It is eminent to mention that Bumrah has also captained the Indian side in all of three games. A test against England and two T20is against Ireland.
Also, do you remember when Bumrah picked himself as his favourite Indian captain?
“See, my favourite captain is me because I have captained a few games. Obviously, there are great captains but I would take my name that I am my favourite captain,” he said when asked to pick the greatest Indian captain by The Indian Express.
Since the retirement of Sharma, it is not clear who will lead the side in the white-ball cricket. Could Bumrah be heir to the throne of Sharma? Can he lead the Indian side in the white-ball cricket considering the workload? Only time will tell.
