Will this continued success transform Kohli into a conservative captain?

[maniac]

The positives....Kohli is on a winning streak...on his way to create history and with the extended home season still to continue,he will be right up there among  the most successful captains we have produced.

 

In all the years I have been following Indian cricket, Kohli is the only  out and out bowlers captain I have ever seen....Dhoni while handling spinners and to a very small extent Dravid came the closest but Kohli is on a different level when it comes to supporting his bowlers be it spinners or fast bowlers.

 

However ,winning can become a habit and winning everything can make even an aggressive  captain conservative. I am not going for complacent here because we know Kohli's focus and work ethic.

 

when it comes to becoming out of the box and creative, usually it is associated with crisis and desperation so why would a guy on the top of the world need that?

 

Let us take ponting for example...the guy didn't know the meaning of losing for almost 80% of his career....his mantra was bat first if you win the toss and outplay the opposition...if you lose the toss then you still have a side to run through opponents. I think ponting's beginning of the end as a captain was when he lost the test to Pakistan in 2010 in that infamous spot fixing tour...he chose to bat first on a green pitch which let Pakistani bowlers run through the Aussie line up and by that point they just did not have the ATG genius players to pull them out of impossible situations.This meant a wake up call that things will not be the same anymore and this resulted in eventually Clarke taking over who was a very innovative captain at least at the start of his captaincy stint.

 

Now coming back to Kohli, right now he has a template and winning games as a captain  is almost on auto pilot. Now I am not saying he is winning only on minefields or dustbowls but he hasn't been challenged enough yet or forced to be innovative.

 

The Srilankan series where we lost a test from a winning position but still came back to win the series is a befitting example of his mental strength as a leader but that was still at an early stage when he had that hunger to establish himself.  The Adelaide chase bravado was what announced him to the world stage as a captain. We Saw a guy who will not back down and will take a high risk for a high reward. But that game looks ages ago. May not be in terms of months or days but how far along Kohli has come since then in establishing himself as the chief-in-charge.

 

Kohli had nothing to lose with a loss/draw at Adelaide but everything to gain. In Srilanka too there was a lot at stake for a young captain like him while a loss as disappointing as it would have been would have been overlooked as learning curve.

 

But today he is a proven winner, someone who is just raking up wins after wins....do you think in the coming years in an Adelaide kind of scenario he would go for the win? or will he try to draw the game as now he also has his win/loss % at stake. 

 

The win loss % factor might not look like a lot for us arm chair experts , but things like this will definitely start playing on a captains mind. Even a seasoned captain like Graeme smith played it safe in the 1st test vs India and obviously there were valid arguments made on both sides of the spectrum.

 

Kohli as a leader is an exciting era and a new dawn for the Indian cricket fan...if he can sustain his win/loss record till the end without having to over think anything like Ricky ponting's captaincy career,I will take it with both hands but can we except such out of the box thinking and bravado from Kohli in the coming years as he grows in strength to strength as a successful captain?

Edited December 4, 2016 by maniac

[fineleg]

ONLY TIME WILL TELL!

[Texan]

Rather than winning, my bigger concern with Kohli is him turning into a Dhoni if he is saddled with captaincy of all fornats. Captaining continuously across formats without much break, even in IPL could drain his creative juices and make him another stubborn mule like Dhoni. That is why I have been advocating separate captains for separate formats. 

[BeautifulGame]

His captaincy will be defined by the bowling attack he can build .

Even in this England series he was at times defensive with his in and out fields .But he knew he had Ashwin and Jadeja who can still build pressure and attack at the same time .

Can he rely on something similar overseas with our pacers . Obviously that's where his challenge is .If he feels he has attack that can take 20 wickets on a flat Sydney wicket , he is definitely the character to go the attack .

But how long can he keep these instincts if we regularly end up conceding 500 plus .He will have to naturally be forced to become a defensive captain .

So to sum it up in summary, it isn't going to be his success that may transform him into a defensive captain but his bowling resources that may transform him into defensive cap if/when it happens .

[express bowling]

48 minutes ago, Texan said:

Rather than winning, my bigger concern with Kohli is him turning into a Dhoni if he is saddled with captaincy of all fornats. Captaining continuously across formats without much break, even in IPL could drain his creative juices and make him another stubborn mule like Dhoni. That is why I have been advocating separate captains for separate formats. 

This is my worry too.

 

Playing, as well as captaining, in all 4 formats will definite burn him out faster.

 

We should have a different captain for T20Is atleast....and he should not play bilateral T20Is unless they are preparatory tournaments for World T20s.

[Cricketics]

As I have said in the past, we will dominate as long as Kumble let Kohli do his thing. Kohli likes to be aggressive and Kumble is a very conservative mind when he it comes to handling certain situations. If they gel well together, it will be great for us.  That is why I want a foreign bowling coach  who will keep Kumble calm and give him confidence that we can win with more bowlers. That combination of aggressive Kohli, calm and hard working foreign bowling coach and a conservative

Kumble as head coach will be a great recipe for the sucess of Indian test team. 

 

It is still too early but I feel India will dominate for years to come and this no.1spot will be ours for a long long time. 

[New guy]

53 minutes ago, BeautifulGame said:

 

But how long can he keep these instincts if we regularly end up conceding 500 plus .He will have to naturally be forced to become a defensive captain .

So to sum it up in summary, it isn't going to be his success that may transform him into a defensive captain but his bowling resources that may transform him into defensive cap if/when it happens .

In psychiatry, they have a theory about self-fulfilling prophecies. If you keep telling someone/group that they are not good (or not good in a particular situation) they will actually become so. If you tell them they are going to great in the same situation, they are likely to do so

 

So under Kohli I am pretty sure the same set of bowlers will give much more even overseas than they have done before. Because by telling them to be aggressive, it shows he believes in them, and that belief will fuel success

Edited December 4, 2016 by New guy

[BeautifulGame]

In psychiatry, they have a theory about self-fulfilling prophecy. If you keep telling someone/group that they are not good (or not good in a particular situation) they will actually become so. If you tell them they are going to great in the same situation, they are likely to do so

 

So under Kohli I am pretty sure the same set of bowlers will give much more even overseas than they have done before. 

Maybe we should give those physiatrists the bowling coach job then.

You are good enough or not based on those skills workrate and ability not any delusional self fulfilling prophecy .

Next I will be hearing Vinay Kumar will be come Malcolm Marshal if he keeps saying All is well lol

[Sandeep99]

Being conservative is not always a bad thing. But yes, I'd be disappointed if he stops experimenting and trying out new things. 

[express bowling]

27 minutes ago, BeautifulGame said:

Maybe we should give those physiatrists the bowling coach job then.

You are good enough or not based on those skills workrate and ability not any delusional self fulfilling prophecy .

Next I will be hearing Vinay Kumar will be come Malcolm Marshal if he keeps saying All is well lol

 

I think he is talking about performing at an individual's higher end of ability  rather than at the lower end.

 

If a captain has 3 Vijay Kumar type bowlers and nothing better, it is better to have them performing at their best than at their worst.

[BeautifulGame]

 

I think he is talking about performing at an individual's higher end of ability  rather than at the lower end.

 

If a captain has 3 Vijay Kumar type bowlers and nothing better, it is better to have them performing at their best than at their worst.

And you u can try as much as one can to have them at their best ability and its still useless if they are not good enough .

That's the point these are lame excuses .

What can the captain do if you don't have the skills with the new ball to take wickets or work over batsmen with old ball without leaking runs .

[Unleashed]

If we don't win a big series overseas i.e England, Saffers or Australia under Virat's captaincy then I'll be very, very surprised. His attitude is refreshing and he is the best thing to have happened to our pace bowlers. 

 

He always makes it a point to praise them as opposed to Dhoni who was quite critical of Umesh etc all the time.

 

The fact that they're thinking of resting the entire bowling attack for ODI series is such a refreshing thought, finally we are catching up to Australia and England by managing the pacebowlers workload better rather then treating them like horses which eventually results in them losing pace. 

 

Shami, Umesh and Ashwin should be test specialists particularly Shami given his injury problems. 

[express bowling]

1 hour ago, BeautifulGame said:

 

What can the captain do if you don't have the skills with the new ball to take wickets or work over batsmen with old ball without leaking runs .

You try to find new bowlers in consultation with the selectors, A team coach etc. and motivate the old bowlers to perform at their optimum level, while the search is going on.

Edited December 4, 2016 by express bowling

[G_B_]

Hmm he seems inclined to play 5 bowlers no matter what...

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[G_B_]

Dhoni was similarly refreshing in the heady days of his early captaincy. It is but natural that a captain would become rigid in his ways based on what works and what doesn't for him. Hence the bit about captains having a shelf life.

Did india play 5 bowlers?

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[BeautifulGame]

Hmm he seems inclined to play 5 bowlers no matter what...

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We only played 4 bowlers against new Zealand and most likely would have played only for in this series if Rohit was fit

[SUMO]

he backs fast bowlers who can bowl 140 
he once said about ishant in SL that an angry fast bowler is a captain delight.
he is not gonna go dhoni's way especially if we get a good WK batsman that will give him cushion to go with 5 bowlers every time

[Shunya]

Too early to predict anything. Nobody can win everything when they handle all formats. Once you start loosing, the real character comes out. He is held responsible for only Tests and that too most of them are home series. That's definitely not same as captaining in all formats for a team like India where you get different teams, different conditions, scenarios, etc. As Texan said earlier, I agree its better to have different captain for different format for the time being.

[Ankit_sharma03]

9 hours ago, express bowling said:

This is my worry too.

 

Playing, as well as captaining, in all 4 formats will definite burn him out faster.

 

We should have a different captain for T20Is atleast....and he should not play bilateral T20Is unless they are preparatory tournaments for World T20s.

I agree i have same concern thats y i beilve he shouldn't captain for more than 5 yrs . Also right now captaining one format helps him concentrate on his batting while playing other 2 formats. 

 

About t20, well we dont play t20 that much. 

[New guy]

10 hours ago, BeautifulGame said:

Maybe we should give those physiatrists the bowling coach job then.

You are good enough or not based on those skills workrate and ability not any delusional self fulfilling prophecy .

Next I will be hearing Vinay Kumar will be come Malcolm Marshal if he keeps saying All is well lol

It is simply not possible that a country which produced so many great batsmen never produced a good fast bowler with skills. Many of our young bowlers started as well as any other young fast bowler in other countries and were compared with them. It was only later they lost their way.