‘A Captain is only as good as his team’

We often hear from the experts that ‘A captain is only as good as his team’. I thought let’s put that to the test as we are more than half way through the tournament and it would be a good time to evaluate Captains of the individual franchises and see how influential have they been as far as their team’s fortunes are concerned.
Delhi Daredevils: Virender Sehwag
Viru has always been viewed by most experts as an instinctive and street-smart cricketer and to a modest extent he has been able to bring that out in his captaincy as well. However he has not set the batting charts on fire so far and hence not led by example as such. Besides he has missed a couple of games due to injury which has not helped. Many experts feel that T20 is tailor made for a Viru explosion but that kind of an innings is still awaited from the man. He has however used Amit Mishra in a very shrewd manner so far in this tournament but the absence of Glen McGrath is going to hurt the Daredevils sometime later in the tournament.
Stand-in Captain: Gautam Gambhir
Too early to comment yet
Chennai Superkings: MS Dhoni
Mahi continues to do a good job of leading the team through the mini-crisis in the beginning of the tournament. His simplistic approach is what has been the secret of his success. His boldness adds to his simplistic approach wherein he has volunteered to lead by example by promoting himself up the order and taking more responsibility. The team for sure will look up to such a leader. If it was not for Mahi probably the Superkings would not be 2nd in the standings as of today. There is however room for improvement in his ‘fringe’ player usage – he has not yet found a way to use Albie Morkel (a potential match winner especially in South African conditions). His usage of Murali could also probably be better than it has been so far in the tournament. On the flip side though he has nurtured Shadab Jakati (an absolute unknown quality from the domestic circuit) extremely well in the latter half of the tournament. MSD’s man management has been fairly good so far but there is a lot of scope for improvement on the ‘tactical’ aspect of his captaincy.

Rajasthan Royals: Shane Warne
Sorry guys but this guy happens to be my personal favorite  International cricket I would say did not have the privilege to see him captain Australia – thanks to his indiscretions in part with bookies and in part with mischievous text messages to a certain English lady. Thanks to IPL however we are getting to partially see what Australia probably missed out on. If you look at the Royals team on paper they do not have real big guns but Warne usage of the squad proves once again that sometimes ‘Whole is not necessarily equal to sum of the parts’. The loss of Shane Watson has not helped the team’s cause but Warne’s excellent utilization of Kamran Khan, Yousuf Pathan, Ravindra Jadeja and Graeme Smith is what puts the Royals 3rd in the standings. While Warne has lead the team admirably what is lacking is a match winning performance from himself which is due given that he has been unusually quite in the tournament so far. Going by Warne track record though I would say ‘Cometh the hour, cometh the man’! The tactical and strategic acumen that Warne brings to the job in my opinion tilts the scales in his favor as far as the best captain in the tournament is concerned when compared to Dhoni.

Deccan Chargers: Adam Gilchrist
Gilly and his chargers started off like a men possessed wanting to prove to the world that they did not deserve to finish bottom of the table last year. Gilly has lead the team adequately so far but there is definite room for improvement on his usage of VVS and Styris and some of the fringe players like Ravi Teja and Venugopala Rao. Given the current state of mind of a certain Mr. Symonds it is difficult to say whether his absence has helped or hurt the team yet. The team however suddenly seems to have gone off the boil suddenly and Gilly will have rejuvenate the likes of Gibbs, Rohit Sharma, VVS, Pragyan Ojha, RP Singh and Fidel Edwards. His own performance so far has been a mixed bag but hopefully he should get some more consistency into his own game in the latter half of the tournament.

Bangalore Royal Challengers: Kevin Pietersen/ Anil Kumble
KP it almost seemed was weighed down by the price tag and the expectations during his entire stint in the IPL. He seemed to be trying too hard and probably hence did not really succeed. KP’s relative inexperience also came to fore with some of the tactical decisions that the Royal Challengers have made – Rahul Dravid being moved up and down the order for almost no apparent reason (Rahul has been the most consistent player for the Royal Challengers this IPL season); Ross Taylor and Jesse Ryder also being moved up and down the order with no success; non-selection of Mark Boucher (a player of immense international experience) for the initial few games.
Kumble to a certain extent has brought in some semblance of order to the team and this is partially manifested in results. He has led from the front and has been one of the most economical bowlers in the tournament so far but he will have to get the likes of Uthappa, Kohli, Kallis, Ryder and Taylor to play to their potential if the Challengers need to make to the semi finals. There is too much of chopping and changing in the side currently which is not giving the team desired result. The overall performance of the team so far gives an impression that people are uncertain about their ‘roles’ in the team.

Kings XI Punjab: Yuvraj Singh
As much as I like Yuvi the batsman (my personal opinion is that the world can expect a lot more from him as a batsman if he plays to his full potential and for a reasonable length of time and not give a breathtaking one-off performance) he does not seem to possess any captaincy acumen. The gulf in potential to performance of the Kings XI team becomes even more apparent when you see the squad which has hugely underutilized Mahela Jayawardena and Kumara Sangakara. His handling of the bowlers leaves a lot to be desired – Irfan Pathan, Sreesanth, Ramesh Powar, VRV Singh and company would agree I feel. With Moody at the helm I feel Mahela or Sangakara would be better bets to lead the team. He might be able to contribute more to the team cause as just a batsman. Also on the fitness front Yuvi appears to be about 4- 6 kgs on the heavier side – this has been noticeable since his knee injury. He gives an impression that his knee is not a 100% and he would do well to work on his fitness

Mumbai Indians: Sachin Tendulkar
Sachin is the best example of the idiom ‘your best player does not necessarily mean he should captain’. For all the Little Master’s capabilities as a cricketer (a batsman par excellence, more than a useful bowler and fielder) he just can’t seem to deliver the goods as far as captaincy is concerned. His tactics through the tournament have been fairly baffling – promotion of Bhajji, usage of JP and the overall confused selection. MI would probably better served if the responsibility of captaincy was taken off his shoulders and we might just be able to see a better output from the Little Master. As much as I personally did not like Greg Chappell as the coach of the Indian cricket team he did make a remark about Tendulkar’s ‘naiveté’ as far as tactical/ strategic inputs in team meetings were concerned which seems to be showing up as the tournament is going by.

Kolkata Knight Riders: Brendon McCullum
Now here is another example of an ineffective leader harming their side real bad. McCullum cuts such a forlorn figure on the field that it’s pretty much a foregone conclusion now that KKR will not making too much of a comeback of sorts. Nothing has worked for the Knight Riders right through the tournament now but as a leader McCullum should have got more out of Dada, Murali Karthik, Ishanth, Gayle, Ajantha Mendis. Baffling also is the choice of players in the squad – the likes of Bangar and Aakash Chopra only helped them increase their ‘frequent flyer miles’. And why buy Mortaza, Pujara, Henriques if you were not going to play him. Relieved of the burden of captaincy McCullum could still be able to fire and some team would pay dearly for the lean run he has had so far.