Rating all the top ODI captains at the moment

There’s been a lot of talk around ODI cricket. There is no World Cup or any big tournament in near future till 2023. With the Test Championship that’s all set to resume, there is a tendency of not giving too much importance to the 50-over format. However, there’s been some quality ODI cricket that’s been played in the recent past. Australia and England played out thrilling series. Also, Australia and India are taking on each other. There are also many ODI series that are planned in the coming days. Moreover, captains have their task cut out between balancing the formats and getting players ready. In fact, captaincy is a challenge at the moment. Last year was the World Cup year and it brought out the best of everyone. Thus, let’s rate all the current ODI captains of the top nine teams. Rating ODI captains of the teams: 9. Tamim Iqbal – 6.5/10 Tamim Iqbal. (Photo Source: Twitter) There’s absolutely no doubt that Mashrafe Mortaza has been one of the reasons for Bangladesh’s rise in white-ball cricket. Bangladesh have come a long way in ODI cricket and they’ve really improved leaps and bounds. All of that has come under Mortaza’s leadership. Since his departure, Tamim Iqbal has taken over the ODI captaincy. Tamim led Bangladesh in the lone ODI series thus far, which was against Sri Lanka in 2019. Bangladesh couldn’t match Sri Lanka in that particular series and went on to lose badly by 0-3. With more ODIs lined up for the Tigers in near future, we can expect Tamim to step up and win some crucial games for his side. 8. Babar Azam – 7/10 Babar Azam. (Photo by Arif ALI / AFP) (Photo by ARIF ALI/AFP via Getty Images) Babar recently took over the captaincy from Sarfaraz Ahmed for all three formats. His first outing as ODI captain came against Zimbabwe in a home series in 2020. Pakistan went on to clinch easy victories against Zimbabwe in the first two ODIs but failed to grab a thriller in the third ODI of the series. The game went to a Super Over and in the end, Zimbabwe came out as a winner. The series was eventually won by Pakistan 2-1. Pakistan losing to a lower-ranked team under Babar Azam’s captaincy is the reason why Babar gets 7/10. It will be exciting to see how Babar fares as a captain in the coming days against top teams. 7. Dimuth Karunaratne – 7.5/10 Dimuth Karunaratne. (Photo by Mike Hewitt-IDI/IDI via Getty Images) It came across as a shock to most people when Dimuth Karunaratne was made Sri Lanka’s captain ahead of the 2019 World Cup. He replaced Lasith Malinga and there was a sense of waywardness in the assigning. It was largely based on Karunaratne’s success as captain in South Africa where he led the Test team to a historic 2-0 series win. Sri Lanka have been pretty inconsistent and have had a very up and down time in ODI cricket over the last year or so. One moment, they were brilliant and the other, they struggled and were poor. They had a couple of excellent results in the World Cup but a couple of disappointing ones as well. But Karunaratne has been good as captain. He’s led the troops well and his batting in ODI cricket has improved a touch as well. Under him, Sri Lanka have won seven out of 11 ODIs and hence, he gets a 7.5. 6. Quinton de Kock – 8/10 Quinton de Kock. (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images) South Africa seem to be restructuring most part of their cricket. The management was shuffled and they got in some fabulous and experienced players like Mark Boucher and Jacques Kallis. They replaced Faf du Plessis as captain in ODI cricket before he quit from the other two formats as well. Quinton de Kock has taken charge in white-ball cricket. He led in his first ODI series as full-time captain against England and did decently. The wicket-keeper batsman led from the front and he scored big. In fact, at the moment, he may be the best South African batsman in the side. The winds seem to be changing but the time period is too short to take a call or judge de Kock’s captaincy. Hence, he gets 8 on 10 and this may well improve as he gains more experience as far as captaincy is concerned. 5. Kieron Pollard – 8.5/10 Kieron Pollard. (Photo Source: Twitter) There was a big change in West Indies cricket post the World Cup and the home series against India. Kieron Pollard returned to ODI cricket and he took charge as captain. Moreover, the results have followed as well as the West Indies seem to have improved as a white-ball side. In fact, they challenged India and pushed them to the limit before going down 1-2 in that three-match series. They’ve brushed aside opponents like Afghanistan and Ireland. Hence, Pollard’s influence has been quite a lot on them. Pollard also boasts the West Indies middle-order and adds some real depth and firepower. He’s executed some really smart plans and they’ve worked as well. Thus, Pollard gets an 8.5. 4. Aaron Finch – 8.5/10 Aaron Finch. (Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images) After the sandpaper scandal, Australia were in turmoil. Tim Paine was made the captain of the Test and ODI team. However, it wasn’t too long before Aaron Finch replaced him in the 50-over format. He took time to settle down into his role as skipper but once he did, the results were there to see. It didn’t look like Australia could win without their big stalwarts. But their come-from-behind series win in India gave them a massive boost and later they blanked Pakistan 5-0 and did really well in the World Cup too. It coincided with Finch’s return to form and he is one player who likes leading from the front. Finch is tactically good as well. Thus, a slightly sluggish start gets him an 8.5 else he’s been very good throughout his tenure so far. 3. Virat Kohli – 8.5/10 Virat Kohli. (Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images) Only seven players (as captains) in the history of the game have a win percentage in excess of 70% in ODI cricket and Virat Kohli is one among them. However, results have not been everything in Kohli’s captaincy tenure. He’s been criticised heavily for his captaincy despite getting most of the results in his favour. Kohli has been leading India in ODI cricket since 2013 as a fill-in and full-time since 2017. The Delhi lad has led the ‘Men in Blue’ on 90 instances in ODI cricket, winning 62 of them. He’s always in the face of the opposition and celebrates almost every wicket in an ecstatic manner. He is the team’s cheerleader as well. And there is hardly anything to talk about Kohli the batsman as captain. He has even better numbers while leading the side. Hence, he is one of the top ODI captains in world cricket. 2. Kane Williamson – 9/10 Kane Williamson. (Photo Source: Twitter) New Zealand are one team that always tend to punch above their weight and perform well. No one would’ve noticed but they have the third-best win-loss ratio in ODI cricket since January 2019. They’ve lost just seven out of the 24 games they’ve played in this period. And all of this has come under the calm leadership of Kane Williamson. The premier New Zealand batsman has the ability to remain cool and calm even under extreme pressure. He showed exemplary behaviour and temperament in what was a nail-biting World Cup final as well. Moreover, he leads from the front with the bat. Batting at No. 3, he tends to control the innings and bat big. As a captain, Williamson has been very consistent and has had excellent results as well. 1. Eoin Morgan – 9.5/10 Eoin Morgan. (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images) If there is one man who needs to be credited for England’s drastic turnaround in white-ball cricket since the 2015 World Cup, then it has to be Eoin Morgan. He has led the revolutionary change in England’s limited-overs cricket. Along with the team management, he backed every player to the hilt and the results are there for everyone to see. England have been simply brilliant in ODI cricket and have been consistently doing well over the last few years. And it’s with Morgan at the helm that the change has been possible. He has led England in 120 ODIs and has won 72 of them (66.6% win percentage). Moreover, looking at Morgan, the captain, we tend to forget Morgan, the batsman. The Irish-born is one of the cleanest strikers of the cricket ball. He can hit sixes at will and has done well with the bat as captain too.

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