Cheteshwar Pujara best bet to lead India in Bangladesh in absence of Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli has been on the road since October last year with back-to-back gruelling assignments at the highest level. As a result, the Indian Test captain has reportedly asked for a break from the tour to Bangladesh, slated in June. The short tour comprises only a Test and three One-Day Internationals (ODIs). While Kohli deserves a break, he should ideally play the Test as he fresh into his captaincy and can take a breather from the one-day games. If he does skip the Test, India would have to find a new captain to fill in to the role for the solitary assignment.

The three candidates that immediately come to mind are Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane and Ravichandran Ashwin. While the last two have also shared Kohli’s workload in the last few months, they are still likely to make the trip to Bangladesh. Pujara, on the other hand, isn’t a part of the one-day side, which allowed him to play domestic cricket. He is also playing county cricket for Yorkshire in a bid to get exposure in testing conditions. When compared to the other candidates, Pujara may be relatively fresh and hungrier as he has been away from international cricket since January.

Pujara seems to be a good candidate for captaincy. He is calm, level-headed and a thinker. Not an expressive man like Kohli, Pujara instead is a picture of serenity like Mahendra Singh Dhoni. He also has good captaincy experience behind him, having lead India A on numerous tours. He has captained a side that included the likes of Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan. This shows that the selectors were looking at him as a potential leader for some time. In those India A encounters, Pujara has been solid and shown that leadership does not weigh him down.

On the other hand, Rahane is one man who is part of all three India squads. If India are looking at a long-term succession plan, then the Mumbai batsman is a good option as he can be moulded as a deputy to Kohli. Accession to vice-captaincy in Test cricket would logically mean a similar step in other formats when Dhoni decides to call it a day and Kohli takes over. However, the thing working against Rahane is his mellow and reserved nature.

Ashwin could be an outside candidate. In interactions with him, one can make out that he has a good cricketing brain. The off-spinner is shrewd, aggressive and has a personality to be a leader. Normally, batsmen are preferred over bowlers for captaincy, which would make the other two candidates the favourites in the race. But, if one has to pick, it should be Pujara, for he has led most of the current squad members on A tours in the past.

To sum up, it would be great if Kohli could make the Test, if not, here is India's chance to groom a vice-captain.

(Nishad Pai Vaidya is a Correspondent with CricketCountry and anchor for the site’s YouTube Channel. His Twitter handle is @nishad_45. The above article was first published in CricketCountry)