Never has Indian cricket had a captain worth looking up to. Atleast not one that I have seen. Azhar is credited with being the most sucessfull captain in Indian cricket. But look at the number of matches he played at home. With the SPIN TO WIN ace up his sleeve, the visitors were always wanting.
India has the worst record overseas. Now we may ponder as to whether this is the captain's fault or not, afterall there are 10 other players in the team. A captain is as good as his team. Sure, why not? But the Indian team is made up of 11 players chosen out of 1 billion fellow citizens, then they have to be good, really good.
Imran Khan, the greatest captain ever in my mind, did not have superstars in his team. Miandad was not the one that the early 80's had come to know. Imran's out-swingers had faded since the 70`s. But still he pulled together all the players and led them to their first ever world cup. Captaincy is not all about good batting and bowling by your fellow team mates. It is about decisions.
Making decisions at the crucial junctures. If your bowlers are not making any breakthrough, then go on the defensive. Frustrate the batsmen, induce them in making mistakes.
Taking risks, a big factor. Kapil dev was the only captain who took risks and threw caution to the winds. Remember the match in England when India needed 20 runs to avoid the follow on? 6 wickets down and Kapil came in, smashing 4 sixes in a single over off the spinner. Now that is captaincy. Taking the risk. He could have got out and exposed the tail. But he could not risk playing defensive either. He had to choose one way and he did.
Gavaskar was the most boring captain, one who would never take risks. Although he is the greatest Opening batsmen the world will ever see, he was not "captain" material.
Azhar, showed signs of flashiness. He did take risks and agressiveness when at home, but as soon as he went abroad things changed.
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