INDIA LOSE T20 SERIES, FACE
India lost the second match and the T20 series to South Africa who beat them by 6 wickets in Cuttack in a game marred by crowd trouble.
India were bowled out for 92, their second lowest T20 score. Upset fans threw bottles on the field, leading to almost an hour-long disruption.
CUTTACK: The travails of a long and arduous tour have done in many teams with pitch conditions, culture and food all conspiring to make things even more difficult. With every third day marked for travel, and with a long Test series to follow the limited-overs segment, it would take tremendous mental strength for one captain to see through the tour unscathed for South Africa.
Last year, India too had found themselves in such a situation with the Australia tour running to nearly five months (144 days). MS Dhoni missing the first Test due to injury and retiring after the third meant Virat Kohli shared the captaincy burden. MANY LEADERS The demands of modern-day cricket have engendered a way to deal with such fatigue-inducing long tours --- split captaincy. South Africa have traditionally impressed with many players in the side possessing leadership qualities and have three separate captains here.
“AB (de Villiers), Faf (du Plessis) and Hashim (Amla) command respect in different ways. It’s nice to have fresh ideas in all three formats. All three lead by example. AB’s on-field performance --- Faf speaks with good command and Hashim is calm and cool.
“With different guys coming into different teams, it’s quite fresh to have that captain’s perspective for that (segment). For one guy to captain in all three formats becomes a bit tough --from press conferences to team selections to worrying about your own performances. They are massive players for us in all formats, and this keeps them fresh and all the teammates enjoy this fresh perspective,” said Farhaan Behardien.
TOUGH TO EMULATE It is often tempting to jump onto the South Africa formula, but lack of the right kind of personnel may be holding back other teams from trying to emulate them.
“It is a brilliant idea but not all teams in the world are lucky to have so many with captaincy credentials in their team. It definitely helps on a long tour to have different captains and the players listening to different leaders’ voices,” said former India chief selector Kiran More.
T20 skipper Du Plessis said: “It is important that you motivate your team and enjoy yourself away from the game. Our (SA) management has a few plans on mentally trying to make the tour short because it can get quite long. That is going to be a real challenge for us guys who are going to be here for the whole time.”