3 potential future Indian captains

A captain is a leader, who keeps the team together, motivates players to give their best, backs them when they are not performing and brings out the best in the team. He inspires the team to keep performing and improve constantly.

CK Naydu was the first ever Indian captain and since then, India has had some great captains which include the likes of MAK Pataudi, Ajit Wadekar, Kapil Dev, Mohammad Azharuddin, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, MS Dhoni and now Virat Kohli.

Each one of them has put on a distinct feather on India's winning hat. Confronted with tough initiation into captaincy, Ajit Wadekar was at the helm of affairs when India started winning overseas. Kapil Dev laid down the marker by lifting the World Cup in 1983.

Successfully grooming the youngsters which went on to become Sehwag, Yuvraj, Harbhajan, Zaheer to name a few, Ganguly led India to many great campaigns overseas. He was an aggressive captain popularly known for the NatWest jersey hurling, Dada knew how to bring out the best in everyone.

MS Dhoni followed him with his calmness. And captain cool, not showing any emotion on the field, won for India all possible trophies ranging right from the WorldCup in 2011 to T20 WorldCup in 2007 and Champions Trophy in 2013.

Virat Kohli succeeded him and has done a great job till now. India made it to the finals of Champions Trophy in 2017 and won so many other bilateral series under his captaincy.

Food for thought - If you look at the three people who have majorly led India for the last three decades vis a vis Virat, Dhoni and Ganguly, there is a similarity (maybe coincidence) amongst the trio. All three have the highest score of 183 in ODIs.

Let's now look at some of the probable future Indian captains.

1) Shreyas Iyer

Shreyas Iyer, the young lad got to captain Delhi Daredevils this season in the IPL for some time. Although they didn't qualify for the playoffs, his captaincy was not the reason behind their failure but only the team's inconsistent performances. He has already captained Mumbai in the domestic tournaments and additionally led India A-side in all formats on various occasions.

Iyer is yet to make his place in the Indian team but it's only a matter of time. Being only 23 currently, he surely is a potential candidate for leading the side when players like Virat and Rohit will no longer be in the team.

2) Rishabh Pant

Another young player, Rishabh Pant has already made it to the Test team. Though his place is still not confirmed, he has already marked his presence. He was the vice-captain of the under 19 team in 2015-16. He led Delhi in the last season of Ranji Trophy, and almost won it until Vidharbha defeated them in the finals.

At just 20 years of age, he has a long career ahead of him. He can be one of the future Indian wicketkeeper-captains.

3) Prithvi Shaw

The new batting prodigy from India, Prithvi Shaw is already a known name in the cricketing world. He led the Indian under-19 team to trophy early this year. He made his debut in the IPL edition of 2018 for Delhi Daredevils and played a few whirlwind knocks. Although he is yet to make his debut for India, he is already a regular member of the India-A team.

Shaw made it to the squad for the last two Tests of the ongoing series against England. If India manage to lose the fourth Test and the openers don't perform upto the expectations, he can make his debut in the fifth Test.

He is just 18 years old as of now and has a long way to go but surely fits the bill for someone who can become a future Indian leader.