Sunday 15 September 2013

Who is the real England T20 captain?



The captain of a T20 side really is not as important as a captain of the longer formats, but the man given the responsibility is likely to become the long term vice captain in ODI and test cricket. The current man in charge is Stuart Broad.

He has been in charge for a year and a half now, unluckily for him though England play very little T20 cricket so he has had little time develop his skills. There is no doubt that Broad is England's most important bowler in limited overs cricket and given his age he will be the leader of the bowling unit for years to come, but there is slight doubts over his captaincy credentials.

What Broad has going in his favour is that he is young, which will mean he can be the captain for a long time to come. He is a player who is always in the side in all forms of the game and he has ample experience for a player of his age.

However I believe there is also a downside to his leadership. He seems to be an angry man. His press conference before the this summers T20 series sums him up for me. He refused to answer a good question from the press in regards to resting of the squad, branding the question as stupid. Call me old fashioned but this is not how I expect an England captain to react to a simple question. Not sure how the other players would react to this.

He has also shown many times on the field that he is a hot head. On many occasions we have seen him angrily throw a ball at a batsman or swearing his head off after he has bowled a bad ball. This over aggressive nature then rubs off on the rest of the team. One key player for England in the shorter formats is Jade Dernbach, he is a naturally aggressive person, it would be hard for someone like Broad to reign him in when he himself is over aggressive.

The third and final issue I have with Broad as captain is that he does not play within the spirit of the game. Again I could be accused of living in the dark ages but I feel the majority of international captains currently are very fair. Look at Jayawardine, McCullum, Dhoni and Clark they all have shown examples of honesty and fairness over their cricket careers. One such example being Dhoni calling Bell back when Bell stupidly got himself out. 

The other man up for the job is Eoin Morgan, he has captained in both ODI and T20 games when the captains are absent. For me what I have seen of him as captain is very impressive. His latest outing as skipper is the ODI series against Australia this late summer. 

The only downside to have Morgan as captain is the fact that he does not get into the test side. So Broad may be favoured as he could be a long term leader of all the sides. There are plenty of positives for Morgan to become skipper, he in my opinion is unlucky not to have cemented his position in the test side. He is a better batsman than Bairstow in my opinion so a recall to the side could be on. 

His batting is often said to be second only to M.S Dhoni in a run chase. This is because Dhoni is a thinker, he understands situations in cricket matches and has the calmness, confidence in his own ability. Albeit Morgan is a lesser version of Dhoni, Morgan still posses these same qualities. He is a calm man when on the field or whilst batting. He has the ability to lead the team from the front and he thinks about inventive field positions. Add his brilliant fielding to this he is for me a better choice as captain.

I would also put Joe Root in the same category as Morgan and honestly believe he will one day lead England but he needs to cement his place in the side before he is even considered. It is clear to see that England have backed Broad to lead in the future but I feel that Morgan is the man England should be looking at. 

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