They must tick these boxes

Leadership should always be awarded to a player who still has some prime years remaining, and in his armour the ability to regularly lead by example on the field

Captaincy has involved some vociferous discussion lately with the daring deeds of English leader Ben Stokes and Australian manoeuvring following the announcement skipper Aaron Finch has retired from ODI’s.

Finch’s retirement was lamented in many Australian circles. This is an understandable reaction because Finch is a good white ball captain. However his replacement should also be an experienced player with strong leadership qualities. The Australian system for producing leaders, whilst diluted, is still the best of an increasingly cluttered format.

Who after Finch?

Finch’s retirement needs careful handling otherwise it could be construed that no other Australian captain would’ve performed as well. That is an incorrect assumption; there were a number of viable options.

Then there’s the much publicised episode of David Warner requesting his leadership case be re-opened by a different management group at Cricket Australia.

That begs the obvious question. Why, following the original ball-tampering incident - Newlands 2018 - did Warner receive a more stringent captaincy punishment than incumbent leader Steve Smith?

They both committed a serious crime at Newlands but Smith’s as a captain saying; “I don’t want to know” was a greater infraction than Warner’s.

If Warner had been alone in hatching the plot—which is not proven—then it was Smith’s job as captain to know about it and put an end to such rumblings. Either way they should’ve received the identical suspension and the fact that they didn’t raises serious questions about any prejudice towards Warner.

Surely no one believes that only three players—the banned trio Smith, Warner and Cameron Bancroft—were the only ones involved in the perilous plot.

Whilst Warner has created an intriguing situation with his assertive request, he shouldn’t be appointed captain of an Australian side. The captaincy should always be awarded to a player who still has some prime years remaining. A captain must have in his armoury the ability to regularly lead by example on the field.

Warner, with his aggressive approach would have been a good on-field leader but sadly his best now only appears occasionally and it’s time to appoint a younger captain.

In the case of Stokes it was his job if he desired a leadership role. While Joe Root is a top-class batsman he was no captain and in hindsight shouldn’t have been appointed. If Root was the best choice at the time of his elevation [there was a minuscule potential list] then the English system is not producing enough true international leaders.

Now that England have the right skipper in place it becomes a matter of choosing the best combination to win in the prevailing conditions. It’s not surprising that England have achieved greatly improved results following their disastrous tour of Australia. England’s recent games have been in the more comfortable environment of home and they replaced Root’s dubious leadership with the enterprising captaincy of charismatic all-rounder Stokes.

Also Read: Jhulan impresses, but England manage to score 227 for seven

Unlucky England

England were certainly unlucky in Australia because they were deprived of some first choice quickies through injury. However it’s patently clear that selecting the ageing Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad in the same team anywhere but in England is a mistake.It’s acceptable—but not ideal—to select a right-arm seam attack in England because it can suit the pitch and surrounding conditions. However, that doesn’t work on Australia’s bouncy pitches where you need variety and the genuine pace of a Jofra Archer and a Mark Wood to have a chance of victory.

Spin bowling is another major English headache; Jack Leach or Moeen Ali aren’t the right bowlers to succeed against teams like Australia. England tend to choose a holding spinner, whereas what they really need is a potential wicket-taking tweaker. Ideally they need a spin bowler like Graeme Swann who could handle either role because he was a top-class operator.

Apart from Stokes, Test captaincy in England is currently a lottery because of the lack of candidates. However the Australian system still generally produces acceptable leaders, with Pat Cummins being the prime exhibit in the case of outstanding captains.

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