Why Gambhir must be given Test reins

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The great North-East battle has been settled with the Kolkata Knight Riders usurping Delhi Daredevils at the top of the IPL-5 table.

The season has also been about the ascendancy of North-East as opposed to the dominance of South-West in the last couple of seasons in which Chennai Super Kings won two IPL titles beating RCB and Mumbai Indians in 2010 and ‘11 respectively and also taking the Champions League in 2010 while Sachin’s team went on to win the Champions League in 2011.

There has been a suggestion that the Daredevils had been driven to the top by the good form of skipper Virendar Sehwag and the redoubtable Kevin Pietersen and the figures also prove that.

Down at KKR, the performance has been more widespread with many more players contributing to their current position. Significantly, Gautam Gambhir’s captaincy has received wholesome praise and not only from the Kolkata stable owned by the eternally popular Shah Rukh Khan.

Gambhir’s captaincy seems to have an influence on what happens in the middle and this is significant because Indian cricket is looking for a good Test captain after the multiple failures of Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s Team India in the longest version of the game.

It would seem premature to conclude that Gambhir is the answer to the Test captaincy because issues remain to be tackled, including his propensity to stick his bat out at the Test crease thus bringing the slips into play very often.

What Gambhir’s Test form Down Under suggested was he would also be one of those who would struggle abroad on sporting pitches, which would be held against him when it comes to the Test captaincy.

Also, his inspirational work in T20 cricket where he has truly put KKR on the road to bigger things is not to be offered as proof of his captaincy capability. However, there is good reason to pursue this line of thinking in a country that has very few options right now when an interim Test captain is the need of the hour.

It might be too optimistic to believe Gambhir can tackle all his technical problems to make a great difference to his batting on harder wickets. But he deserves the first chance since he has put in all the hard work and is a bright member of the younger players even if he is just on the wrong side of 30.
Much of Test captaincy has to do with the instinct to back the right bowlers to get wickets.

In that sense, it is a far more positive game than the limited-overs stuff in which captains press early for wickets and then lay back and wait.

Of the two leading contenders for Test stewardship in case the necessity to split the captaincy is recognised by the selectors, Gambhir is the more natural leader.

Sehwag can come up with some inspired guesses while handling the bowling but he fares no better than Dhoni whenever Indian bowling is up against seemingly immovable objects, which occurs far more often than should be the case on true wickets. There is no question Gambhir is the better captain and their success rate in away Tests has not been all that different on two disastrous tours.