What Did You See In KL Rahul As A Captain? Manoj Tiwary Slams BCCI Selectors After ODI Series Whitewash In South Africa

Manoj Tiwary has come down heavily on the BCCI selection committee for naming KL Rahul as the stand-in India captain for the recently-concluded South Africa ODI series, which incidentally India lost 0-3. KL Rahul also lost the only Test match he captained in the South Africa series when Virat Kohli had to pull out due to stiff back.

Tiwary questioned the rationale behind KL Rahul being seen as the next India captain and grooming him for the leadership role by making him the vice-captain of the Indian white-ball teams with Rohit Sharma leading the team.

“First of all, I want to ask the selectors, “What did you see in Rahul as captaincy material?” Suddenly, they’re saying that they’re grooming him as a future captain. I don’t understand how you can “groom” a captain. A person is either a born leader or he isn’t. Captaincy comes naturally, it’s an inbuilt quality.

“Grooming a captain is possible, but the process will take a long time. It will take a player around 20 to 25 games to learn about decision-making, but even then success will not be guaranteed. See, every international match is important for India.

A few wrong decisions cost us the series. I’m not blaming Rahul for his captaincy, but I’m disappointed with the selectors, who should identify leadership skills in a player rather than “grooming” a captain. That’s why I want to ask the selectors what they saw in Rahul to make him the captain of India,” Manoj Tiwary said in an interview with Sportskeeda.

Manoj Tiwary had a short career for India, in which he scored 287 runs in 12 ODIs, including a hundred and a fifty.

Manoj Tiwary Makes His Pick Of The Next Indian Test Captain

Furthermore in the interview, Manoj Tiwary, who is also the West Bengal’s current Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports, was asked to name his pick of the players he sees fit to captain the Indian team in Test matches after Virat Kohli stepped down in the aftermath of India’s 1-2 Test series loss in South Africa.

Rohit Sharma is a born leader: Manoj Tiwary

“Rohit Sharma – there’s no question about that! Rohit is a born leader, so the selectors and the team management shouldn’t think about anyone else. Let’s not think too far ahead at this point in time. Let’s only focus on the present as Rohit still has a lot of cricket left in him.

“He has led Mumbai Indians successfully in the IPL, so just give him the captaincy. Irrespective of the format, he has been successful because of his decision making, temperament and strong communication skills,” Tiwary added.

India will next face West Indies in a series of three ODIs and as many T20I matches which will be played in February in Ahmedabad and Kolkata respectively.

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