Analysis
5 Indian legends who were never given captaincy in international cricket
India has been blessed with some of the greatest captains the sport has ever seen. Right from the 1980s, India enjoyed great leadership and Kapil Dev led them to the biggest cricket glory in 1983 by winning the ODI World Cup against the West Indies. India later on saw some great captains like Mohammad Azharuddin, Sourav Ganguly, MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and so on. They have helped India to win many tournaments and series of different levels.
Under Ganguly, India jointly won the Champions Trophy 2002 along with Sri Lanka. India won the NatWest Series 2002 and the Border Gavaskar Trophy 2001 under the captaincy of Ganguly. Under MS Dhoni, India won the T20 World Cup in 2007, the Commonwealth Games in 2008, became the number one ranked Test team for the first time, won the ODI World Cup in 2011, and the Champions Trophy in 2013.
Under Virat Kohli, India won the ODI and T20I series in Australia and South Africa. India won the Border Gavaskar Trophy in 2018/19 for the first time away from home under Kohli. Under Rohit Sharma, India won the Nidahas Trophy in 2018, Asia Cup in 2018 and 2023. India also won a bilateral series in England in ODIs. With so many great captains, India happens to be a team with good results in international cricket, particularly in limited-overs cricket.
However, some great players could not lead India for many reasons. Here are the five players with remarkable careers for Indian cricket who, despite their brilliance, were never bestowed with captaincy in international cricket.
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5. Syed Kirmani
Five players with remarkable careers for Indian cricket who, despite their brilliance, were never bestowed with the captaincy in international cricket (Source: X)
Syed Kirmani played for India mostly in the 1980s. In the period, he was a key player in the team, handling the responsibility of being the WK batter. Back then, wicketkeepers were specialists in keeping the wickets and did not contribute a lot with the bat with some exceptions. However, Kirmani was brilliant as a keeper and good as a batter. He was a key part of the Indian team that won the ODI World Cup in 1983. However, Kirmani never led India in a match.
