Bharat Arun comments on why India’s experienced bowler should not be named Captain

There are two additional names that have surfaced among the three key players for the role of Test skipper in the Indian squad after Virat Kohli stood down earlier this month, one of them is veteran Indian spinner, R Ashwin. Former Indian bowling coach Bharat Arun, on the other hand, believes that India should name a batter as captain rather than a bowler.

“The same goes for Ashwin; what if your pairing changes? With the current situation, I believe that becoming a leader for a bowler will be difficult. You also take into consideration the various types of pitches you play on… What if you need to play just one lone spinner abroad, and that lone spinner happens to be Ravindra Jadeja due to team strategy… that’s a problem, so I’d rather pick a batter as a Test captain. Bumrah’s captaincy was also a point of contention. Will they play all of the Tests, though? Would Bumrah be able to play all Tests now that the workload management system is in place? What if he needs to take a break in the middle of a series? Then there’s another leadership shift. Changing a captain in the middle of a series, in my opinion, is not advisable unless the captain is injured,” said Bharat Arun in his explanation.

After Kohli stepped down as captain just after a day when India lost the test series against South Africa in Cape Town, Vice-captain Rohit Sharma,K.L. Rahul and Rishabh Pant are the three frontrunners for the Test captaincy role. Meanwhile, BCCI has announced Rohit as the captain.