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Virat Kohli vs Sarfaraz Ahmed - Who is the better captain?

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PukhtoonZalmay88

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Batting abilities aside, who do you think reads his opponent and situation better? I would pick Sarfraz. His captaincy in the last 3 games(i dont remember that India game ever happening :p) has been spot on. He is excellent at keeping the pressure on once he has the opponent down.

Kohli on the other hand can get too aggressive at times. Having Dhoni in the side has helped his captaincy a lot but once he retires, i think Kohli's weaknesses as a captain might get exposed.
 
You can make an argument for Sarfaraz, he has a lot more work he needs to do with a weaker side. A lot of the work is done for Kohli because the side was already incredible when he inherited his captaincy. And it helps when you have the greatest Indian captain ever at the stumps in Dhoni guiding your way.

If you put Sarfaraz in as the Indian captain they still do incredibly well. If you put Kohli in as captain of Pakistan what does that do?

On some other occasions I could put Kohli above Sarfaraz as a captain (not as a batsman) but even if he is it is a lot closer than one would think. Sarfaraz really needs to make smart decisions this time around and not bowl Imad Wasim repeatedly to get hammered stupidly.
 
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Even if we win on Sunday, I will take Kohli over Sarfraz as captain any day. Having said that, the former is not a top LOI captain, but he has been brilliant in Tests.
 
Kohli is an inspiring leader who leads from the front but tactically in India itself there are better captains.

Sarfraz easily. Only thing lacking is tht he should start leading from the front. Keeping is good and batting needs consistent contributions too.
 
ChachaPakistani said:
You can make an argument for Sarfaraz, he has a lot more work he needs to do with a weaker side. A lot of the work is done for Kohli because the side was already incredible when he inherited his captaincy. And it helps when you have the greatest Indian captain ever at the stumps in Dhoni guiding your way.

.
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Sarfraz is leading probably the weakest side in our history. And this is not me saying. This was general consensus of 90% people. Leading the same side (with few changes) which lost 4-1 against Austrlia and 4-1 against England. Restricting teams to 220-230 on batting paradises is no joke.

Even when we lost 4-1 in odis to England last year we won the t20 thanks to brilliant captaincy of Sarfraz restricting them to 130. As I always believe, captaincy has a key role in cricket.
 
Both are ordinary. VK has the better team to make him look good. Sarfraz has the desperate fans eager to anoint him as the savior, whether he deserves it or not.
 
Kohli has lots of help from Dhoni, that is one of the main reason he is in the Team, instead of Pant or Saha. Plus whatever he usually brings in as a Batsman. You can also see him, frequently, rearranging the field without consulting Kohli. There is some sort of a unwritten agreement between them ..... seems to work for the good of Team, soooo ..... why not ????
 
IndYeah1 said:
Both are ordinary. VK has the better team to make him look good. Sarfraz has the desperate fans eager to anoint him as the savior, whether he deserves it or not.
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I dont know if he deserves to be labeled as a savior or not, but I don't consider taking a no. 8 seed to a final, especially with a side as weak as Pakistan's, ordinary by any means. Credit is given where credit is due.
 
Sarfraz. arguably he is dealing with a shorter deck of cards. Virat has Dhoni (if you observe carefully, Virat checks Dhoni's reaction whenever there is a question of whether to call for a review - Dhoni subtly indicates his proclivities and thus saves Virat the embarrassment of acknowledging that he asks Dhoni for advise while the former is captain).

Furthermore, Sarfraz is managing from crisis to crisis. that is more challenging.
 
ChachaPakistani said:
I dont know if he deserves to be labeled as a savior or not, but I don't consider taking a no. 8 seed to a final, especially with a side as weak as Pakistan's, ordinary by any means. Credit is given where credit is due.
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I'm not saying don't give him credit. But that doesn't change the fact that he's an ordinary captain. I'm not bashing the guy, just giving an opinion as a cricket fan.
I won't hesitate to say that inspite of Dhonis' great achievements as captain in ODI and T20, he too has his issues. And was a very ordinary captain in tests.

I find Sarfraz's tactical captaincy quite defensive. And I am very strongly against the kind of attitude he gives his own team when things are not going well.
 
Mamoon said:
Even if we win on Sunday, I will take Kohli over Sarfraz as captain any day. Having said that, the former is not a top LOI captain, but he has been brilliant in Tests.
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Kohli is a pretty ordinary captain, clueless at times even in tests. The fact that he has a test team which wins tests at home and a great LOI team as well, his deficiencies are hidden. One more way in which he resembles ponting, although ponting was much better as a captain than Kohli but not as good as some people think.
 
Too early to say.

Sarfraz was on point vs England. I think Azhar or Misbah would've botched it.
 
we will only find out how good a captain kohli is when dhoni retires, he might turn out to be better than dhoni you never know but at the moment dhoni is usually calling the shots on the field or walks up to virat if hes struggling

Sarfaraz was literally sweating when he captained his first game against india, couldnt handle the pressure at all, his captaincy in the india game was atrocious, his low energy and nervous look were contagious for the team, but he redeemed himself in the following games especially against england.

Stephen Fleming who is a good friend of Rixon also mentioned that Rixon told him that the Pakistani players just couldnt handle the pressure on the day of the India game, not really sure why that is tbh, in Sarfarazs own words, they're ranked #8 and have nothing to lose

Hard to say who is better at the moment, the match on Sunday wont prove anything either
 
A hard question to answer given Kohli having mentors like Tendulkar/Dhoni etc to play and learn under, whilst Sarfraz pretty much having to be his own man, for Misbah, Azhar and other alike defensive seniors had no advisory aptitude.
 
Both are equal.

The beauty of Kohli's captaincy is he can rely on himself. The man can win ODI matches all on his own especially while chasing. He's a great motivator too.

Sarfraz is a good tactician. He makes the most of his resources but is a tad overzealous at times. It's okay when you're winning but can become nauseating when you're losing.
 
What? lol Kohli has captained 26 tests won 16 of them . Lost 3.one of the loss was due to their bold attempt to chase down a target on day 5. In ODIs captained 24 and won 19
 
Too early to bring up such a comparison. Sarfraz has amazingly had 3 good games as a captain on the trot in an ICC event which has brought this up. At least wait and see 2-3 series before making a judgement.

I do think though that people will not necessarily feel Kohli has a hard time as a captain and will therefore never be rated too highly. His batsmen do pretty much 60% of the job for him.
 
Kohli keeps the intensity going. Even in under-19 he proved that. He is a real fighter. He thrives under pressure. Many underrate him because of his poor IPL captaincy where he honestly doesn't give a sh*t. Personally tactically Gambhir would have been one of the best captain but for Dhoni.
 
jnaveen1980 said:
What? lol Kohli has captained 26 tests won 16 of them . Lost 3.one of the loss was due to their bold attempt to chase down a target on day 5. In ODIs captained 24 and won 19
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Stronger team.

Win/Loss records don't say much about who is a better captain. For example, Ganguly was a better captain than Ponting IMO.
 
kingusama92 said:
Stronger team.

Win/Loss records don't say much about who is a better captain. For example, Ganguly was a better captain than Ponting IMO.
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I am not sure what exactly Sarfraz did. Bowlers raised their level also opposition caught cold feet. If bowlers crumbled under pressure he would have been cursed no end.
 
jnaveen1980 said:
Kohli keeps the intensity going. Even in under-19 he proved that. He is a real fighter. He thrives under pressure. Many underrate him because of his poor IPL captaincy where he honestly doesn't give a sh*t. Personally tactically Gambhir would have been one of the best captain but for Dhoni.
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Sarfraz also proved the same in u-19 wc 2006 with a weaker team. Pakistan's 2008 u-19 wcteam was much stronger.
 
Sarfraz definitely, Amazing captain who has led a Number 8 Ranked side fighting for the qualification of Champions Trophy to a possible victory of that very tournament.
 
Sarfraz is miles ahead. He's a class apart. Leading from the front a team that nobody even rated.That's a big achievement. Kohli is classless gets easily nervous and agitated he's not a leader.
 
I guess we got the answer today- Sarfaraz completely outsmarted him. Will be interesting to see how Kohli fares when Dhoni retires.
 
Kohli was awful today and it was clear dhoni took over near the end. Sarfraz is an amazing amazing captain
 
The difference today between the two captains was sarfaraz was brave, no fear of failure and backing his team and players

A good example is that when shadab got hit for theee consecutive sixes by pandya. He not just persisted with him but also supported him in flighting the ball and going for wickets

Surely any captain would have asked him to rest and change, but sarfaraz didn't shake the confidence of the lad, infact he encouraged the lad to toss the ball up, give it more flight and go for the wicket

People can argue that he had the luxury of scoreboard and high run rate required, but pandya had brought it down to 7.7, another big over would have brought it down more and india would had started believing they can make something out of this and take match closer - Sarfaraz took the risk

Now compare this to the world's number 1 spinner who gets hit one six by azhar Ali and after that all he bowls is flat quick off spins, like Imad, for heavens sake you are the most attacking number 1 spinner, you are bowling first, to the weakest batting side in the tourney, go for wickets, flight the ball, not flat and defensive lines on the leg!

Why didn't Kohli discuss with ashwin his line and length , he could have Instilled confidence in him that go ahead flight the ball, don't care what runs we get hit, I support you

mSD was aggressive in Odis, kohli fear not.

Sarfaraz hands down tactically more strong

Normally Pakistan first chance is always Imad wasim , today he didn't bring him till 20th over - brilliant stroke he changed his plan so India had to rethink their strategy

He got aamir to bowl 6 on the trott, when he bowls only 4 in his first spell

I think Sarfaraz is the better captain and a good student of the game
 
A captain is not defined or made by " aggression " or " swagger " or " proper English ". A captain is made by gaining experience and having an astute cricketing IQ. Kholi does not have either and should focus on batting. Give the captaincy to Rahane who can at least bring some cricketing structure to Indian captaincy.
 
Kohli is an awful captain, highly arrogant one as well. Wouldn't even accept his mistake of playing two spinners today and keeping Umesh on the bench...
 
Kohli has been disappointing so far. Whenever, the opposition team is dominating, Kohli is clueless.
 
Kohli is immature,you can't have a guy like him as captain

He swears,Doesn't look to motivate anyone

He isn't a captain and I don't think many Indian players like him,If someone is going to swear under his breath whilst shaking his head like some massive disaster has occurred then I as a player wouldn t look up to him and it wouldn't be a nice dressing room,kohli has attitude but a bit too much of it like Joe root who looked like clown was laughing all the time as a captain you need to be firm whilst also helping your players,I like holder as a captain as well as Smith,Williamson,Faf,Mathews,Creamer,Mashrafe these guys are firm,Speak well,Good tacticians,Understand the game,Respect the opposition,Sarfraz is going to be a good captain as well but of what little I have seen Root and Kohli don't look like captains and will never be good captains apart from maybe taking extra responsibility and scoring more runs but Kohli doesn't even look like a good captain he always brings in MS in discussions and he does not back youngsters even to the slightest and he doesn't let go of an incident.

When have you seen a captain annoying the opposition,Swearing,Poor/Over aggressive body language/Bad attitude.

He has to understand he isn't one of the lads anymore but the leader and he is responsible for his team and their actions
 
I believe your captain should be your best player baring how respected they are among the group
 
Sarfraz is ahead for now, better time is to judge at the end of there careers. Kohli has done a good job in tests and his LO record isn't that bad. That defeat in CT final makes people forget about his record.

Be interesting to see how Sarfraz does in tests.
 
Though Virat has better communication skill especially when you are talking to the media, but Sarf is a smarter captain. who cares whether you are speaking well or not as long as you get the job done by making smart moves.
 
Just basing on the fact that Kohli has way more tools in his tool shed than Sarfraz, you have to give the nod to Sarfraz. Kohli will win alot more games in the long run though because, he not only single handily wins game by himself but he will play half of his games at home.
So it depends on you definition of a good captain. If you want to look at the win/loss ratio Kohli will be miles ahead to Sarfraz once their careers are done. If you want tactically, and squeezing the most out of his resources, than Sarfraz might even be the best captain going right now.
 
thehub said:
Though Virat has better communication skill especially when you are talking to the media, but Sarf is a smarter captain. who cares whether you are speaking well or not as long as you get the job done by making smart moves.
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Exactly!! I don't know why us Asians are so obsessed about English language. Why does a captain need to know English when rest of his troops all speak the same language as him. He needs to communicate with his players not with media.
 
Sarfraz is the best captain of world and anyone who think otherwise is in serious denial.

14 wins out of 17 with major champions trophy win and series wins against t20 finalists. All that when he was given no 7 and no 8 ranked teams and losing his main players due to fixing allegations.

What a legend!
 
Sarfraz is better on the field and cricketing stuff but Kohli is better with press conferences and social media. Who is better depends on what facets you find more important.
 
Poutine said:
Sarfraz is better on the field and cricketing stuff but Kohli is better with press conferences and social media. Who is better depends on what facets you find more important.
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I would take the one who is doing well on the field. I dont even mind Virat getting dropping if that is the only way we could have a better captain to lead this team. He is a gun batsman. no doubt in that but he is dragging the team down due to his stupidity.
 
thehub said:
Though Virat has better communication skill especially when you are talking to the media, but Sarf is a smarter captain. who cares whether you are speaking well or not as long as you get the job done by making smart moves.
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TBH


His speaking skills arnt great,He just doesn't answer some questions like a proper captain,Kohli whom I'm on about
 
SarfiBabarHaris said:
Sarfraz is the best captain of world and anyone who think otherwise is in serious denial.

14 wins out of 17 with major champions trophy win and series wins against t20 finalists. All that when he was given no 7 and no 8 ranked teams and losing his main players due to fixing allegations.

What a legend!
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It's just the last bit Of SarfiBabarHarris and that's Harris otherwise you've done one hell of a prediction
 
Billy1999 said:
It's just the last bit Of SarfiBabarHarris and that's Harris otherwise you've done one hell of a prediction
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Haris was first unfairly treated and then unfortunately had a career threatening injury. In my limited knowledge he is easily the best test batsman in Pakistan since 2011/2012. Still has time. Hope Inzi selects him for the next test series.
 
Sarfaraz has potential to end up one of the best captains ever.

Although, it won't be easy for him. Captaining Pak is a tough job. As soon as he loses a game he'll get criticism from 180+million people.
 
WhenSultansBowled said:
Sarfaraz has potential to end up one of the best captains ever.

Although, it won't be easy for him. Captaining Pak is a tough job. As soon as he loses a game he'll get criticism from 180+million people.
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True, so far he has won pretty much every important match he has captained which includes an ICC trophy. But he is still getting criticized by some even in this thread. Just wait till he losses a match or two, the criticism will skyrocket.
 
Sarfraz is superior in captaincy but needs some work regarding his consistency in batting.
 
SarfiBabarHaris said:
Haris was first unfairly treated and then unfortunately had a career threatening injury. In my limited knowledge he is easily the best test batsman in Pakistan since 2011/2012. Still has time. Hope Inzi selects him for the next test series.
Click to expand...

I hope he will be selected
 
WhenSultansBowled said:
Sarfaraz has potential to end up one of the best captains ever.

Although, it won't be easy for him. Captaining Pak is a tough job. As soon as he loses a game he'll get criticism from 180+million people.
Click to expand...

Captaining Pakistan is an extremely tough job and one of the reason is the criticism you get due from different quarters.

One of the qualities of Sarfraz is he can handle criticism in a good way. We saw how he was criticized after the CT match against India and again in a pathetic way by Aamer Sohail but the guy has never said a word against his critics. Treated trash by Waqar but he never said anything against him. This is an impressive quality considering he will captain Pakistan and one of the reason why Misbah remained captain for long as he could handle criticism.
 
Kohli isn't a bad Captain, but he is a horrible loser. When his team is in good position, he is quite good, but he loses it under any stress. His tenure will be polarized one - in Test matches, at home India's result will be almost similar, whoever is made Captain as long as he makes the XI on merit & has the support of his players. But, his biggest test will be in away tours - may be this winter to SAF & next summer. So far, he is not impressive, whenever asked questions. Personally, I was quite impressed with Rahne at the series decider against Aussies.
 
MMHS said:
Kohli isn't a bad Captain, but he is a horrible loser. When his team is in good position, he is quite good, but he loses it under any stress. His tenure will be polarized one - in Test matches, at home India's result will be almost similar, whoever is made Captain as long as he makes the XI on merit & has the support of his players. But, his biggest test will be in away tours - may be this winter to SAF & next summer. So far, he is not impressive, whenever asked questions. Personally, I was quite impressed with Rahne at the series decider against Aussies.
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He is not a bad loser, just doesn't like to lose. There is a difference. After the final defeat he was very gracious in defeat and spoke very well.
 
I think both need to develop their body language in scenarios where their teams are having a bad time in the match. Tactically currently I think Sarfu is ahead. Would be interesting to see Kohli after Dhoni has retired. There is no doubt that Dhoni the strategist is always lending a helping hand to Kohli (and rightly so) so hard to gauge the tactical nous of Kohli at this point in time.
 
Both have short track records and haven't done much to pass judgement. Rahane should be captaining Indians.
 
Eagle_Eye said:
He is not a bad loser, just doesn't like to lose. There is a difference. After the final defeat he was very gracious in defeat and spoke very well.
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His body language towards his own team & spectators doesn't tell that. Same guy is full of smile when team is doing well. I am not sure if there is anyone who likes to lose, therefore Kohli might not be unique in that regard, but hardly any Captain gives such mouthful to own players & spectators in front of camera when team is losing, so indeed there is a difference.

After such a day in an ICC final, what did you expect him to say or behave like - we are the better team, but had an off day & PAK was lucky to catch us off guard, with his collar raised? And, he put PAK in batting backed on his team's chasing ability, then lost the match by more than double margin with himself getting out twice in 6 balls. It was his fortune that being Indian captain, media doesn't ask him uncomfortable questions - otherwise you would have seen his graciousness.
 
Hasan123 said:
Kohli make his team on merit . He demands the best from all of his players in regards to fitness and effort.

If he was my captain I would be inspired.
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Well he can’t inspire mediocrity batting to his level.

Even though any team in the world would kill to have him in their XI, his captaincy is not comparable to Sarfraz.
 
Hasan123 said:
Kohli make his team on merit . He demands the best from all of his players in regards to fitness and effort.

If he was my captain I would be inspired.
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You would be inspired and dropped.

Sarfraz does not make the team on merit? Can you name a better wicket keeper batsman in the country?
 
The_Odd_One said:
You would be inspired and dropped.

Sarfraz does not make the team on merit? Can you name a better wicket keeper batsman in the country?
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That tells you how rubbish our keeping stocks is and not how good a keeper Sarfraz is . Which other top team does Sarfraz make as a keeper batsmen?
 
ManFan said:
Well he can’t inspire mediocrity batting to his level.

Even though any team in the world would kill to have him in their XI, his captaincy is not comparable to Sarfraz.
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Sarfraz isn't even some master tactican. Kohli will and has won more games with his bat than Sarfraz tactics will ever win for Pakistan.
 
Hasan123 said:
That tells you how rubbish our keeping stocks is and not how good a keeper Sarfraz is . Which other top team does Sarfraz make as a keeper batsmen?
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Don't change the goalpost.

You made a statement that Sarfraz does not make the team on merit. Can you justify it?
 
Hasan123 said:
Sarfraz isn't even some master tactican. Kohli will and has won more games with his bat than Sarfraz tactics will ever win for Pakistan.
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Kohli's bat can win more games has nothing to do with his captaincy. He will do the same as a regular player. It's like saying McGrath would be a better captain than Stephen Fleming because his ball could win more matches which will be completely nonsensical.
 
Hasan123 said:
Sarfraz isn't even some master tactican. Kohli will and has won more games with his bat than Sarfraz tactics will ever win for Pakistan.
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Yes we were ALL witnesses to his bat and captaincy when they met the last time.

:shh
 
The_Odd_One said:
Don't change the goalpost.

You made a statement that Sarfraz does not make the team on merit. Can you justify it?
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So his recent record with bat means he makes the team on batting merit to bat in the top 6? In a cricket crazy country there isn't a batsmen who could have average more than he has in ODIs in the last year?
 
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