After taking his new IPL side Lucknow Super Giants to the playoffs this year, KL Rahul still has some questions to answer as his captaincy skills are once again under scrutiny. He has been a brilliant batter for any team that he has represented so far in his career, but it’s his leadership which has not been anything special as yet. After the Virat Kohli era, the Indian team has Rohit Sharma as their captain for now in all three formats of the game.

But the Hitman is already 35 and surely not a long term answer to India’s leadership requirements. In this year’s IPL, Rohit had a season to forget as MI’s skipper. Mumbai finished last in this year’s edition under his captaincy and the numbers with the bat, hitman has struggled too. In India’s next T20 series, the men in blues will be playing South Africa at home where KL Rahul will lead the side in absence of Rohit. Rahul’s statistics as India captain have not been great.

It will be a huge task for him in this series where the BCCI will be monitoring Rahul’s captaincy very closely. Rahul has captained two IPL franchises so far, first of them was Punjab Kings where the North Indian franchise could not qualify for the last four stages of the competition under him.

The Story Involving KL Rahul And The Indian Team; How Will He Fare In This Upcoming Series?

This year, things got a bit better for Rahul as he guided LSG to the playoffs in their debut season but some credit must go to their mentor Gautam Gambhir for building a strong squad and putting in proper tactics which made the job for Rahul a bit easier. Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar has criticized Rahul as captain and said he doesn’t rate him like he rates Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli as captains.

“We have seen enough of KL Rahul to now know that when he becomes this player, the captain, the key player of the side.  I mean Virat Kohli loves that kind of responsibility. Dhoni loved it. I think Rohit Sharma, barring this season, generally likes that kind of responsibility,” stated the cricketer turned commentator.

He further added, “Maybe KL Rahul temperamentally is not suited to take this kind of responsibility where he is the man who has got to get the job done. They are just made of different mettle and maybe K.L Rahul is not.”

“If I was his coach, I would just take that decision out of his hand even if he is the captain. For the teams he’s played for, we have seen a lot of games where the teams would benefit immensely if KL Rahul just batted quicker rather than longer,” said Manjrekar.

We have seen plenty of new captains in this year’s IPL. Likes of Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Mayank Agarwal and Sanju Samson have all done a decent job as captaining their franchise but one guy has been a class apart i.e. Hardik Pandya. The flamboyant cricketer has delivered over expectations as Gujarat Titans skipper this year which has been a fairytale season for them under the 28-year-old’s captaincy.

Pandya has brought out the best from his players especially David Miller, Wriddhiman Saha and even Rahul Tewatia alongside some youngsters who have performed exceptionally well. Rahul has serious competition for his place as Hardik Pandya is breathing on his shoulders for becoming the next Indian captain.