Mumbai: “A captain is as good as his team” is an old adage in cricket. Yet IPL franchises spend disproportionately on a captaincy candidate. Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer wouldn’t have commanded the highest bids in auction history if their franchises Lucknow Super Giants and Punjab Kings hadn’t earmarked them as captains.
For this reason, Pant and Iyer’s performance metric will be compared through the season. They could not be enduring more contrasting fortunes. Under Iyer, the usually underperforming PBKS, with seven wins in 11 matches are a step away from playoffs qualification. The Pant-led LSG have been inconsistent and will need a dramatic turnaround to advance further.
It’s never an exact science, weighing the impact of captaincy. It’s doubly difficult to rank in IPL, where even on-field decisions are constantly lent a helping hand what with the head coach, mentor, data analyst and others jostling to provide instructions, especially during the timeout between innings. We still have teams where owners and senior executives have a say in selection.
Iyer has shown before that he is allergic to interference. Last year, as the victorious Kolkata Knight Riders captain, he had ruffled feathers by saying publicly that the CEO had a say in selection matters.
Interference or not, most teams agree, it helps to have a captain with a mind of his own. After splurging on Venkatesh Iyer in the auction as a potential captaincy candidate, KKR developed cold feet and went with Ajinkya Rahane for his experience.
PBKS head coach Ricky Ponting has made it clear that Iyer is their on-field boss. It was Iyer’s decision, said Ponting, to promote Josh Inglis over himself to No.3 in Sunday’s win over LSG at Dharamsala. Despite Iyer’s improved game against the short ball, the captain felt the Australian was better placed to counter Mayank Yadav’s shorter lengths, if a wicket fell early. As it panned out, Inglis climbed over Mayank with three consecutive sixes to wrest the initiative.
On another occasion, Ponting was asked if they were open to promoting Glenn Maxwell to No.3. “We’ve got a guy called Shreyas at No.3. If I want to stay in my job, I’m probably not going to move the captain. As we all know, the captain sets the batting order,” Ponting said.
There have been matches where Iyer took the bold call to under-bowl his leading spinner Yuzvendra Chahal, not wanting to expose him to an adverse match-up. Then he brought him on at the death to exploit an opposing power-hitter’s weakness.
He’s got it wrong too. Like going for Suryansh Shedge’s medium pace at the backend against CSK, where he was taken for 26 runs by Sam Curran. PBKS still won. But his decisions are his own. So also his mistakes, from which he is allowed to learn.
“He won the IPL last year as captain. So, when you’ve got that experience behind you and you believe and trust in your instincts, I think that’s the biggest thing with captaincy, especially in a T20 game where everything around you is happening so fast,” said Ponting.
Pant’s struggles
Watching Pant as leader of LSG has been anything but inspiring. Images of him visibly disagreeing with the coaching staff over the call to demote him in the batting order to No.8 against Delhi Capitals made for poor optics. It also left a negative impression in front of his teammates.
From his vantage point of having worked with both Iyer and Pant at Delhi Capitals, Ponting picked Iyer. Pant was clearly the owner’s choice. That’s not to say Pant doesn’t have the tactical awareness as captain. His impressions about the game from behind the wicket are usually cheeky and original.
Only Pant knows if he gets the freedom he desires from the hierarchy – head coach Justin Langer, mentor Zaheer Khan, owner Sanjiv Goenka – in the franchise.
It hasn’t helped matters that Pant has endured his worst IPL season with the bat – 128 runs, avg 12.8, strike rate 99. In contrast, Iyer has delivered his best showing – 405 runs, avg 50.6, SR 180.80.
For the free-thinking, free-flowing cricketer he is, Pant badly needs runs to give expression to his leadership.
