They must tick these boxes

Captaincy has involved some vociferous discussion lately with the daring deeds of English leader Ben Stokes and Australian manoeuvring following the announcement skipper Aaron Finch has retired from ODIrsquosFinchrsquos retirement was lamented in many Australian circles This is an understandable reaction because Finch is a good white ball captain However his replacement should also be an experienced player with strong leadership qualities The Australian system for producing leaders whilst diluted is still the best of an increasingly cluttered formatWho after FinchFinchrsquos retirement needs careful handling otherwise it could be construed that no other Australian captain wouldrsquove performed as well That is an incorrect assumption there were a number of viable optionsThen therersquos the much publicised episode of David Warner requesting his leadership case be reopened by a different management group at Cricket AustraliaThat begs the obvious question Why following the original balltampering incident Newlands 2018 did Warner receive a more stringent captaincy punishment than incumbent leader Steve SmithThey both committed a serious crime at Newlands but Smithrsquos as a captain saying ldquoI donrsquot want to knowrdquo was a greater infraction than WarnerrsquosIf Warner had been alone in hatching the plotmdashwhich is not provenmdashthen it was Smithrsquos job as captain to know about it and put an end to such rumblings Either way they shouldrsquove received the identical suspension and the fact that they didnrsquot raises serious questions about any prejudice towards WarnerSurely no one believes that only three playersmdashthe banned trio Smith Warner and Cameron Bancroftmdashwere the only ones involved in the perilous plotWhilst Warner has created an intriguing situation with his assertive request he shouldnrsquot be appointed captain of an Australian side The captaincy should always be awarded to a player who still has some prime years remaining A captain must have in his armoury the ability to regularly lead by example on the fieldWarner with his aggressive approach would have been a good onfield leader but sadly his best now only appears occasionally and itrsquos time to appoint a younger captainIn the case of Stokes it was his job if he desired a leadership role While Joe Root is a topclass batsman he was no captain and in hindsight shouldnrsquot have been appointed If Root was the best choice at the time of his elevation there was a minuscule potential list then the English system is not producing enough true international leadersNow that England have the right skipper in place it becomes a matter of choosing the best combination to win in the prevailing conditions Itrsquos not surprising that England have achieved greatly improved results following their disastrous tour of Australia Englandrsquos recent games have been in the more comfortable environment of home and they replaced Rootrsquos dubious leadership with the enterprising captaincy of charismatic allrounder StokesAlso ReadJhulan impresses but England manage to score 227 for sevenUnlucky EnglandEngland were certainly unlucky in Australia because they were deprived of some first choice quickies through injury However itrsquos patently clear that selecting the ageing Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad in the same team anywhere but in England is a mistakeItrsquos acceptablemdashbut not idealmdashto select a rightarm seam attack in England because it can suit the pitch and surrounding conditions However that doesnrsquot work on Australiarsquos bouncy pitches where you need variety and the genuine pace of a Jofra Archer and a Mark Wood to have a chance of victorySpin bowling is another major English headache Jack Leach or Moeen Ali arenrsquot the right bowlers to succeed against teams like Australia England tend to choose a holding spinner whereas what they really need is a potential wickettaking tweaker Ideally they need a spin bowler like Graeme Swann who could handle either role because he was a topclass operatorApart from Stokes Test captaincy in England is currently a lottery because of the lack of candidates However the Australian system still generally produces acceptable leaders with Pat Cummins being the prime exhibit in the case of outstanding captains