Did Ashwin deserve India Test vice-captaincy over Rahane for West Indies tour?

It’s been three days since BCCI made public India’s Test and ODI squads for their tour of the Caribbean in July and August, which would be their first assignment in a month. Followers of Indian cricket perhaps were expecting a squad full of the usual faces in the Test side with some room for experimentation in the ODIs given there’s a World Cup drawing near.

The selection committee’s picks, especially for the two five-day fixtures, though have got Indian cricket circles abuzz with veterans such as Cheteshwar Pujara and Umesh Yadav dropped after the ICC World Test Championship final defeat and the likes of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Mukesh Choudhary earning maiden Test call-ups.

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Pujara getting overlooked for the No 3 slot primarily came as a shocker to many since he had been in roaring form in the County Championship earlier this summer and has been India’s greatest No 3 since current head coach Rahul Dravid. Him getting the axe led many to believe that his run with the Indian team has finally come to an end and that the powers that be have finally put the wheels in motion as far as the Indian cricket team’s transition is concerned.

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Another major talking point since BCCI’s dropped the bombshell on Friday has been their choice of vice-captain for the West Indies tour, handing it to senior batter Ajinkya Rahane with opening batter KL Rahul out of the picture for now.

Rahane had been stripped of vice-captaincy ahead of the 2021-22 tour of South Africa, with Rahul succeeding him in that role since. The decision appeared to have had an effect on Rahane’s form as he would go on to struggle against the Proteas and would get subsequently dropped from the Test side along with Pujara.

While ChePu would return to the side later that summer, Rahane would stay far away from the selectors’ radar and would have to grind it out in the Ranji Trophy and in this year’s Indian Premier League for him to earn his place back in the Test side, marking his comeback in the WTC final.

Not only did ‘Jinks’ regain skipper Rohit Sharma and coach Dravid’s confidence in his ability with a hard-fought 89 against the Pat Cummins-led Australia, it also impressed the selectors enough to make him Rohit’s deputy for the next assignment.

It would have come as great news to a certain section of Indian cricket fans, especially since Rahane has shown strong leadership both at the highest level as well as in the domestic circuit for his team Mumbai. He was, after all the architect of India’s 2-1 triumph in the 2020-21 Border-Gavaskar Trophy Down Under, considered one of the greatest tales of comeback across all sports. Rahane also is yet to lose a Test as captain, having led India to four wins and two draws in six matches as a leader.

Ashwin far outshines Rahane on consistency

There’s another school of thought that believes that the team management and the selection committee should have instead appointed senior off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin as Rohit’s deputy instead. Rahane has plenty of points favouring him for the role. So does Ashwin.

The biggest difference between the two, however, would come down to one word — consistency.

If the selectors and the team management indeed have appointed Rahane in the role with the larger picture in mind, then it certainly is a bit too soon given the 35-year-old has only just made a comeback into the side.

Both the captain and his deputy are two integral members of the core of a team — which also comprises the leader of the attack and other members of the side who are viewed as key to both short and long-term planning. And not only are player-management skills paramount when it comes to being given a leadership role, but the leader or his deputy must also make an impact in his/her designated role on a regular basis to be able to hold on to that position.

Rahane, no doubt, has made an impact as a leader however short the sample size of his captaincy is. He has made an impact with the bat to the point that he was considered an integral member of the Test middle order and something of an overseas specialist, especially in SENA conditions.

Ashwin certainly has what it takes to be a good leader, even if on a temporary basis, though it’s debatable whether he’s better at the job than Rahane. Ashwin, however, far outshines Rahane when it comes to churning out match-winning performances, even if the nature of their roles is quite different.

Rahane has managed to claw his way back into the Test side after nearly 18 months, and even then he is expected to face stiff competition once the likes of Shreyas Iyer returns to full fitness. However, there simply appears to be no replacement for Ravichandran Ashwin in the Indian Test side despite his age.

In home Tests, there is no looking beyond Ashwin’s pairing with Ravindra Jadeja, with the likes of Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav having to scrap it out for the role of the third spinner. Ashwin, after all, is the most successful off-spinner India’s ever had and the most defining spinner of the generation alongside Australia’s Nathan Lyon.

In the helpful conditions in the subcontinent, he’s near-unplayable. In SENA nations, it’s his variations and his ability to out-think the batter that keeps him relevant. There was, after all, quite an uproar after Ashwin was left out of India’s XI for the WTC final, which goes on to show how much of an impact he continues to make at the ripe old age of 36.

And let’s not overlook his contributions with the bat, which along with his abilities with the ball have made him a stand-out performer of this generation of cricketers. One might even go ahead and say that Ashwin has performed somewhat better with the bat than Rahane since the Boxing Day Test against Australia in Melbourne in 2020-21.

Ashwin would thus have reason to feel hard done by yet again; he has not been in the right frame of mind since getting overlooked for the ‘Ultimate Test’ earlier this month and his interviews with the press in which he talks about “friends becoming colleagues” besides taking subtle digs at skipper Rohit Sharma and coach Dravid. Maybe elevating him to vice-captaincy might just have cheered him up a tad, and the decision might have paid off down the road.

Read | ‘Not a setback, just a stumbling block,’ says Ashwin on WTC final snub

Or Rahane’s appointment might well be a case of looking at the near future rather than the full 2023-25 WTC cycle. If Pujara getting the axe suggests a transition is slowly beginning to gather steam, then it’s only a matter of time before the role of vice-captaincy — and eventually the team leader — is handed to someone like Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Shubhman Gill or whoever it is Rohit and Rahul have in mind as the successor.

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