Plenty of cricketers make their debut for India every year. While a few fail to make it big for their country, a couple of them succeed to even lead the country at one point. Regards to captaincy as well, there can be successes and failures. While many felt Sachin Tendulkar would become a great captain, the master found it hard with the job. Many criticized the move to make MS Dhoni the captain, but the player later became a legend with the role.
However, with such a tight cricket calendar, sometimes, the captains could also miss a game or two. It is at this time that the ‘makeshift captain’ comes into the picture. A pick is made from the experienced bunch, and this player would lead the side until the main man returns to the XI. However, at times, this span is as short as one encounter. In this article, we take a look at four Indian cricketers who led the ODI team only on one occasion.
1. GR Viswanath
The people of this generation are unaware of the genius that GR Viswanath was. He was a terrific batsman and one of the best that India has produced. Although the Karnataka man’s domination was in Test Cricket, he also played a few ODI games. He even got to captain the squad on one occasion. It happened in 1981, and unfortunately, though, India lost that game. Nevertheless, that did not do any damage to GR Viswanath’s image as a cult hero.
2. Syed Kirmani
Syed Kirmani was yet another Karnataka cricketer who could manage just one game as the captain of the Indian Cricket Team. India lost that particular game. Nevertheless, speaking about Syed’s contributions, the player was a great servant of the team. He was a specialist wicket-keeper and got the award of being the best gloveman at the 1983 World Cup. At that time, wicket-keepers were not expected to contribute much with the bat. However, Syed had decent skills with the willow. He is known for a few useful contributions in the lower order.
3. M Amarnath
Mohinder Amarnath is a player known for his exceptional credentials in both departments of the game. While he batted beautifully at times, he also exhibited perfect seam bowling when required. In the finals and the semi-finals of the 1983 World Cup, Amarnath was the man of the match. He helped India win the title. A year later, the man from Punjab also got a chance to lead the Indian Team. Unfortunately, it was just one match. He could not help Team India cross the victory line in that encounter.
4. Anil Kumble
Karnataka cricketers just can’t seem to be escaping from this curse! Again, it’s a Karnataka player who makes a presence in this list. This time around, though, its a man who is not new to captaincy. However, at the time when he captained India in an ODI game, Kumble was fairly new to the role. It was in 2002 and only a couple of years later that he took up captaincy in the Test format. Nevertheless, Kumble won that game for India and kept a clean record of his ODI captaincy. ‘Jumbo’ later also captained RCB in IPL.
