5 great Indian cricketers who never captained the country
A captain of a team is the soul of it and he is the one responsible for everyone’s performances, and when it comes to leading the team, he has to lead from the front and set an example for the team. The role of a captain in cricket is very similar to that of manager in football. There have been many Indian captains and some of them are described as few of the best in the world, but still there are few great Indian cricketers who never captained the country and worked from the back only. so here let’s look to some of them .
Zaheer Khan
Undoubtedly one of the best bowlers India has ever seen and right from his debut, he displayed his potential and prowess. With 311 test wickets,282 ODI wickets, and 17 T20 wickets he is regarded as best fast bowler from India after Kapil Dev. From late swinging ball to toe-crushing yorkers, Zaheer had it all in his pocket. And with all these achievement he never became a leader for Indian cricket team and played in captaincy of Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble and then MS Dhoni along the way.
Harbhajan Singh
He came into prominence during the 2001 series against Australia and has never looked back. With 417 Test Wickets and 269 One Day International wickets, he is one of the modern day legends of Indian cricket. His furious nature never made him fit in the seat of a skipper.
VVS Laxman
A very very special laxman, this is what the name Australian cricketers gave to this excellent crickets India had. VVS Laxman was the crisis man, more so in the Test team.8781 runs in test cricket, 2838 runs in ODI’S and many other such records in holded by this man. Playing with names like Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and Virender Sehwag, this Hyderabad man made a special place for him in the Indian batting order. And despite his presence in the team for almost 15 years, he was never appointed as the captain, even to fill the gap for a temporary basis.
Erapalli Prasanna
189 wickets in 49 matches was a testament to his ability. Light, loop, drift and then bite off the surface, Prasanna exemplified what off spinners should be like, but he never became a full time member of the team, unfortunate thanks to the team politics. Prasanna was always a second fiddle option to Srinivas Venkatraghavan, both as a bowler and then later as a captain!
Bhagwat Chandrasekhar
242 wickets in 58 matches at an average of 29.74. These are the numbers Bhagwat Chandrasekhar spun out during his career. And how can we forger Test against New Zealand in 1976, in which Chandrasekhar and Prasanna took 19 wickets and were crucial in setting up India’s win. However, he was never earmarked as a leader, and never was he deemed fit enough to be the captain of the National team.