Bangladesh vs India: KL Rahul is not a future captaincy contender

It is why he is leading the team for the two-Test series against Bangladesh and will most likely end up with a series win away from home come the end of the tour. 

However, his spot in the team never seems assured; his consistent failures in pressure situations have become a major stick to beat him with, as has his white-ball batting approach. 

And as for his chances at being a captain? Forget about it. Yes, there are doubts over Rohit Sharma’s long-term suitability for the role, which is understandable since he’s on the wrong side of 30 and consistently deals with injuries. 

However, it tells that Rahul is still not considered a favourite to succeed Rohit as captain even if the BCCI take the drastic call to remove Rohit as skipper across formats. 

For one, despite him having the BCCI’s backing, it is clear that there is some degree of pressure on Rahul. It is evident in the way he bats and the way he leads the team too. 

There is a degree of safety involved in both. As a batsman, despite having every shot in the book and the ability to clear the boundary, he tends to start very slowly. 

As a captain, he has been accused once too often of being a reactionary captain; he waits for things to happen rather than making things happen. 

It is why he struggled as captain of Punjab Kings and why his debut season with the Lucknow Super Giants didn’t yield at least a final appearance despite having what many considered the most potent squad on paper. 

This has been evident in his Test captaincy too. Ironically, before the Bangladesh series, he said something that has once again ended up becoming a stick to beat him with. 

Praising England’s ‘Bazball’ approach, he said that India would look to play ‘attacking cricket’ under him. But that hasn’t been the case in the slightest. 

When India could have shown attacking intent, they did not. In the first Test, they had a chance to enforce the follow-on and get an innings win. 

They chose to bat again instead, and while they did win the Test in the end, it dragged longer than expected and gave Bangladesh a slight chance of clawing their way back into the Test. 

It is safe to say that under Rahul, India have not played attacking cricket. Have they played winning cricket? Yes, but Bangladesh is dead last in the World Test Championship standings. 

The current side is not a force in Test cricket, and it is worth noting that even when they were a competitive white-ball side, the same could not be said about their Test side. 

Thus, an unconvincing Test series win over a team that is not competitive isn’t going to be enough to make Rahul a future captain, not least when his spot in the team in itself is under question. 

So even if Rohit prematurely gets removed from the post, don’t expect Rahul’s name to be at the forefront on the list to replace him.