KL Rahul not qualified enough to lead the team India: Ajay Jadeja.
Vivo IPL 2021: Despite performing exceedingly well in the field of cricket as a batter, regardless of the format, KL Rahul lacks the rudimentary leadership skills reckons the former Indian cricketer and renowned commentator, Ajay Jadeja.
In the cricket show of Cricbuzz on Sunday, Ajay Jadeja explained that the intimidating batter lacks certain leadership qualities and hasn’t displayed the aura of a captain in his two year’s course as Punjab Kings (PBKS) skipper.
Rahul has more accommodative qualities which could help him in career longevity, however, to be a standout performer or to be a pre-eminent leader of the side, one needs to be expressive of his views, says Ajay Jadeja.
He further said that if one day KL Rahul becomes the Indian skipper, his tenure as a captain will be the longest due to his accommodative nature.
“If you look at KL Rahul, he’s been the captain of this team for the past two years, I never get the feeling that he’s a ‘leader’… Whenever this team has gone through a good phase or a bad phase we never look at him. The team (PBKS playing XI) that’s playing today, the changes that have been made, do you think KL Rahul has made these changes? Someone becomes an Indian captain based on his philosophy because he should be a leader. I have not seen that in KL Rahul so far because he’s very soft-spoken and adjusts in everything. If he becomes the captain one day, then it’s a certainty he’ll last the longest because a guy ready to adjust can stay longer in that position,” said Ajay Jadeja.
The renowned commentator added, to be the skipper of an IPL team and the Indian national side are two different fronts. The latter requiring a high level of management skills at the macro level right from managing the players and bringing the best out of them.
“But there are leadership qualities where whether or not I agree with his philosophy, the Indian captain should at least have one philosophy. Because there’s a huge difference between the captaincy of an IPL team and the Indian team. You have to manage a lot of things there (in the latter).”
KL Rahul hasn’t taken enough responsibilities on his shoulders: Ajay Jadeja
KL Rahul has led Punjab Kings (PBKS) in two seasons now. The side finished sixth in the last year and is placed in the fifth spot in the ongoing Vivo IPL 2021. The dashing batter doesn’t have an impressive captaincy record with 11 wins and 14 losses in the IPL.
Ajay Jadeja concluded that KL Rahul shows some traits of MS Dhoni when it comes to remaining calm during the matches and that could be of the fact that he hasn’t taken enough responsibility onto his shoulders.
“I don’t know him personally and you see a different version of him too, but generally when he’s on the ground, he has the calmness like MS Dhoni. There are good things too but the biggest thing is that you need to be a leader. People should be debating your decisions, ‘Why is he doing this or that?’. That never happens to him, even in an IPL team, because he has not taken any responsibility upon himself, letting others run the team.”
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