'A person is either a born leader or he isn’t' - Manoj Tiwary questions KL Rahul's appointment as captain

Indian cricketer Manoj Tiwary isn’t much convinced with the appointment of KL Rahul as captain for the recently concluded ODI series against South Africa. Rahul did not manage to win a single game as captain across formats. India lost the second Test and then three ODIs under his captaincy even as several experts questioned a few of his decisions as well.

The 29-year-old had to take the leadership in absence of injured Rohit Sharma. Virat Kohli stepped down from the Test captaincy recently after the series loss to South Africa and there have been a lot of talks over his successor. Rohit Sharma’s persistent injuries might be one of the factors to be considered and Rahul is the next contender on the queue.

Head coach, Rahul Dravid noted that KL will certainly get going once he captains more games and did not want to see much faults into it after the South Africa series.

Manoj Tiwary opines on KL Rahul being ‘groomed’ as a captain

Manoj Tiwary, while speaking to Sportskeeda, revealed his thoughts on Rahul as a leader and questioned the selection process behind it. He noted that captaincy is something that is not ‘groomed’ in limited time and felt that a player could be identified if he is suited for the role in just a few games.

“What did you see in Rahul as captaincy material?” Suddenly, they’re saying that they’re grooming him as a future captain. I don’t understand how you can “groom” a captain. A person is either a born leader or he isn’t. Captaincy comes naturally, it’s an inbuilt quality. Grooming a captain is possible, but the process will take a long time. It will take a player around 20 to 25 games to learn about decision-making, but even then success will not be guaranteed. See, every international match is important for India.” Tiwary said.

The former cricketer added that he is more disappointed with the selectors than KL Rahul’s captaincy and wanted to know the insights behind appointing the latter. Rahul’s captaincy stint for the Punjab Kings didn’t go well either as they failed to progress to the playoffs continuously.

“Considering the kind of players we had, we shouldn’t have lost the ODI series 0-3. A few wrong decisions cost us the series. I’m not blaming Rahul for his captaincy, but I’m disappointed with the selectors, who should identify leadership skills in a player rather than “grooming” a captain. That’s why I want to ask the selectors what they saw in Rahul to make him the captain of India.” he added