Jasprit Bumrah has led Indian cricket team from the front in the rescheduled fifth Test against England in Edgbaston. He played a quickfire knock of 31 not out off 16 balls in the first innings that took India's total past the 400-mark. With the ball too he has been providing crucial breakthroughs. Bumrah had a rare chance to lead India to their fourth Test series win in England, but it was not be so as England romped home by 7 wickets. As far as his captaincy goes, Bumrah the leader, with his field placements was impressive and although the result was not one that he expected, his overall captaincy has been rated well by experts and former cricketers alike.
However, Karsan Ghavri, the former India pacer was not at all in favour of Bumrah captaining, saying not every fast bowler can be a good captain. Ghavri, who picked up 452 wickets from 159 First-Class matches for Mumbai and Saurashtra pointed out that a fast bowler needs to take care of several aspects of the game, and the added responsibility on Bumrah, who had never captained any team at any level prior, was not the ideal choice to captain India in the series decider."Bumrah has never captained any team. Forget about a Ranji Trophy team, he has not even led a club side. Look, a captain's mind is totally different. He needs to keep thinking about making field placements and effecting bowling changes and strategising throughout. In the dressing room, I'm sure [head coach] Rahul Dravid and the other coaches made a lot of plans, but when the 11 players go onto the field, the captain must execute them. Bumrah couldn’t do that," Ghavri told Mid-Day.Ghavri added that if Rohit did not get fit on time, Virat Kohli should have shown the willingness to take up the role for the series-decider. Kohli gave up India’s Test captaincy after the series defeat to South Africa, but because he was the captain in the first four Tests, that saw India take a 2-1 lead, Ghavri reckons the former India captain was best-suited for the role.
