Whenever a player starts playing cricket, his first dream is to play for his country at the international level and then it comes to leading the country into the International stages. Earlier, the players who performed brilliantly for their country had the privilege to lead the team.
However, it has changed to a great extent with the advent of T20 cricket. Many young players got a chance to captain their country at the international level in T20 cricket. There were some players in T20 cricket who has led a team in number of matches, but there are some legendary players who got a chance to captain their country in only one T20 match.
These players were such that they got a chance under some circumstance and later they were removed and given the captaincy to someone else or the regular captain returned to his duty. In this article, we take a look 5 such players who have captained their national team in lone T20I.
Sir Alastair Cook
The success that Sir Alastair Cook got in Test cricket, he could not replicate the same success in limited overs cricket. The left-hand batsman, the highest run-scorer in Test cricket for England, played only 96 matches in limited overs cricket.
Cook has played only 4 T20I matches in his career and he also got a chance to captain in a match in 2009. Regular captain Paul Collingwood chose not to play against South Africa before the toss and was replaced by Cook.
Inzamam-ul-Haq
Inzamam-ul-Haq is considered one of the most successful batsman and captain of Pakistan team. Inzamam, who was in charge of ODI and Test captaincy in 2006, captained his country in the a T20I match.
He captained Pakistan in the match against England in Bristol and the match also proved to be the only T20 match of his career.
Shaun Pollock
South Africa’s legendary fast bowler Shaun Pollock, who made his T20I debut in 2005, played only 12 matches in his T20I career spanning almost three years, and, during this time, he also captained South Africa in one T20I match.
In the absence of regular captain Greame Smith in 2007, Pollock was given the responsibility to lead the team against West Indies, which however, South Africa lost.
Shane Watson
Former Australia all-rounder Shane Watson is considered one of the most successful all-rounders in international cricket. He was famous for his aggressive batting and excellent bowling ability. Watson also got a chance to captain Australia in the T20I match against India in 2016 after regular captain Aaron Finch was injured. Watson captained the team in the third match of the T20I series against India played in 2016.
Virender Sehwag
India played its first international T20 match against South Africa in 2006. In that match, the Indian team was captained by the explosive opening batsman Virender Sehwag. Rahul Dravid was made the captain in the other two formats. At the same time, Sehwag was given the captaincy for the only T20I match.
