He said Rahul hasn’t displayed the aura of a good captain so far as PBKS captain.
Punjab Kings (PBKS) KL Rahul might have been leading the side from the front and is currently the leading run-scorer in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL 2021), but his leadership hasn't yet impressed former Indian cricketer Ajay Jadeja.
Jadeja believes that Rahul has an adjustive nature but lacks the philosophy a leader should possess, saying the PBKS skipper hasn’t displayed the aura of a good skipper in the past two seasons as a captain.
The stylish right-hander is currently the Orange Cap holder with 528 runs from 12 matches at an average of 52 for the Punjab Kings (PBKS) in the ongoing IPL 2021. However, PBKS is at the fifth spot in the IPL 14 points table with 10 points and is almost out of the playoffs race with only one game remaining against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on October 7.
Jadeja told Cricbuzz: “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 would have made that?”
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He continued, “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 to 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.
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.”
However, the former cricket has pointed out that Rahul has a calm demeanor like MS Dhoni, but hasn't taken much responsibility on his shoulders as the skipper so far in the IPL.
Jadeja signed off by saying, “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.”
(Cricbuzz inputs)