Just as we approach the mid phase in the IPL, the franchises are working hard on getting their team combination or as they call it “balance” correct before the business end of the tournament. Selecting the four overseas players is the most difficult job for the team management. There are certain impact players in each team who are automatic selections and there are few who fill up the places depending on the playing conditions and the Indian talent available.
So what happens if your overseas captain doesn’t perform and you have really strong bench strength? In fact all of teams who have nominated overseas captains are facing this problem right now. We saw the Sunrisers Hyderabad take a strong call and drop their captain, Kumar Sangakarra in their last game. Adam Gilchrist, Ricky Ponting, Mahela Jayawardene and Angelo Mathews too are struggling with their form. This applies particularly to Gilly & Ricky who haven’t been playing international cricket for quite a while now. So this makes a lose-lose situation for the franchises, since if you decide to drop your captain, it’s not the ideal situation to have a new leader mid-tournament and if you decide to continue playing him then your bench strength cannot be utilized efficiently.
We saw Royal Challengers Bangalore who had nominated Daniel Vettori as their captain last IPL make a strategic decision to nominate Virat Kohli this time around. I think the other franchises would take his aspect into consideration in the forthcoming IPLs and prefer to have an Indian captain.
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