A good captain has to accept the team’s limitations: Ajit Wadekar

Former India skipper Ajit Wadekar has come out in praise of Indian skipper Virat Kohli following India’s win in the third Test match at St. Lucia. Wadekar has been renowned as the skipper of the Indian team when he led India to its first ever win in England. Moreover, Wadekar’s coaching methods in the 1990s also saw the Indians wrest control over their cricket at the time.

At the moment, Wadekar is bestowed with the capability of assessing the Indian teams that grace the fields of cricket today. Speaking about captaincy in general, Wadekar said that the first and foremost thing a captain had to recognize was the limitations of his side. “A good captain has to first appreciate the limitations of his team,” the 70-year old said in an interview with The Telegraph.

Wadekar said, “You need bowlers capable of taking 20 wickets. Equally, you need a captain who understands his attack and can motivate his bowlers. Credit to Virat for the way he has handled both the new-ball bowlers and his spinners.”

“Understanding the team’s strengths is fairly easy, the challenge is to quickly know the limitations and to evolve a strategy to cover all bases,” he added.

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Speaking about Kohli, Wadekar said that the 27-year old Indian skipper certainly had a massive role to play in the side. “I’d say strategy. The game plan has to cover the opposition’s and one’s own team’s pluses and minuses. But, really, it was all a very long time ago,” he said, modestly. The strategy is what, he said, helped India this time too and Virat Kohli had a massive role to play in it.

“From a distance, I believe Virat has understood that. In any case, he seems a willing learner, which is an excellent quality to possess. Virat comes across as a keen student of the game. Going forward, he can only get better,” he assured.

“A big dose of congratulations to the team currently in the West Indies. Both wins were emphatic and special mention has to be made of Virat, particularly the way he has handled the attack,” he concluded.

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