Question of captaincy

Captaincy brings the best out of some. Imran Khan is a fitting example in the context. While he was already an accomplished fast bowler when appointed the skipper, he transformed himself into a dependable batsman also – in fact, the most dependable in the team at one time – on taking over the reins of the national team.

However, there are examples to the contrary. Ian Botham of England is one, when talking of the cricket of the 1980s. Captaincy affected not just his own performance, he turned out to be one of the poorest English captains. Sachin Tendulkar, who led the Indian team from 1996 to 2000 in Tests and ODIs, also found captaincy taking its toll on his performance. He, therefore, preferred foregoing the role of the skipper. Virat Kohli, who captained the Indian team in all three formats of the game, is a recent example of players faltering under the additional weight of captaincy, thus relinquishing the charge.

This brings us to the point that our own Babar Azam may have taken the right step to stand down as Pakistan's white-ball skipper. Free from the captaincy burden as well as related controversies, Babar will be better-placed to focus on his batting and serve the team better in his batsman-only capacity.

And now the question of who should replace Babar as skipper, it is advised here that the role of the leader only suits a player whose selection must not be in doubt. It is the performance of the leader that commands respect from teammates. Based on this criterion, the name that tops the list of contenders is that of Muhammad Rizwan. We thus fully agree to Mudassar Nazar, the Man with the Golden Arm, that no one better than Rizwan can fit in the role of the skipper in all three formats of the game.