Leading a side is an art. To be successful with the captaincy, one needs to have a combination of several skills. Man management, have multiple plans for a given situation, the ability to be flexible, handling immense pressure are some of the factors that come along with this tag. In the history of the game, we’ve seen numerous successful captains who led their sides to glory.

However, it is not as easy as it looks. A player could be excellent in his field of discipline but that doesn’t mean that he’ll be able to lead a team well. For instance, Sachin Tendulkar is one of those examples who has found it tough to lead the team at the highest level. Similarly, there are some of the current star cricketers who are not captaincy materials.

Here are five current stars who are not captaincy materials:

1. Quinton de Kock

Quinton de Kock. (Photo Source: Twitter)

Quinton de Kock could be an important member of the South African side. He keeps wickets for the team across all the three formats and evolved into one of the most important members of the side. While he is quite important with the willow and behind the stumps, De Kock is not the best as far as captaincy is concerned.

During his younger days, he led the South Africa team in Youth One-day internationals. However, out of the nine games where he led the team, he only managed to win five and lost four. After that, he led the South Africa ODI team after six years back in 2018.

However, the team lost both those games under him. Thus, Quinton de Kock is not really the captaincy material for his nation. While he could be groomed to take up this role, that will need a lot of hard work and he’ll need to improve upon several aspects of the game.

2. Imam-ul-Haq

Imam-ul-Haq. (Photo Source: Twitter)

After the poor performance in the World Cup 2019, there has been a lot of debacle about the captaincy. Many fans and experts want a change in leadership. They’ve lashed out at the current skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed for his poor captaincy and unthoughtful moves in the tournament.

However, Pakistan doesn’t have a proven leader amongst the youngsters at the moment. Babar Azam has led the team in Youth ODIs and is a potential option. Imad Wasim could also be a possibility. While there has been some chatter about Imam-ul-Haq, he isn’t really a captaincy material.

Imam is usually quite passive on the field. There isn’t a great deal of aggression in his game and hasn’t got much of an experience leading a team. While he might be quite good with the bat, Imam-ul-Haq is one of those players you wouldn’t want to consider as the skipper of the team.

3. Carlos Brathwaite

Carlos Brathwaite. (Photo Source: Twitter)

Carlos Brathwaite is a potential option the Windies Cricket Board (WICB) might be considering on a long-term basis. He won his team the T20 World Cup in 2016 when he smashed Ben Stokes for four consecutive sixes in Kolkata. After that, there have been several moments of brilliance from this big-hitter.

However, Brathwaite has struggled to maintain consistency. While he has been an integral part of the white-ball teams, it is largely because there aren’t too many alternatives. Moreover, he has also been handed over the responsibility of leading the T20I side.

Brathwaite led the team in 27 games out of which he lost 14. His win percentage as the captain of the side is less than 50 per cent. He isn’t as good a tactician and Windies might have to soon explore the other options available as well as they can’t persist with him for too long.

4. Shikhar Dhawan

Shikhar Dhawan. (Photo by Henry Browne/Getty Images)

Usually in white-ball cricket for India, when Virat Kohli is absent, Rohit Sharma takes over the responsibility of the side. In such a scenario, Shikhar Dhawan is named the vice-captain. This was the case in Asia Cup 2018 as well. Dhawan had an opportunity to lead the team for the first time against Afghanistan in that tournament.

Rohit Sharma was rested for this game and so was Dhawan. Thus, MS Dhoni led the team for the 200th time in ODI cricket and Dhawan couldn’t make his captaincy debut. However, even if he’d have led the team in that game, it might have ended up being a bad idea.

Shikhar doesn’t have much experience in leading teams. His previous IPL franchise, Sunrisers Hyderabad, gave him this opportunity in 2013. But that ended up being a bad choice as he lost 9 out of 16 games. Midway through the 2014 season, he was sacked and Darren Sammy replaced him.

5. Tamim Iqbal

Tamim Iqbal.. (Photo by Kai Schwoerer/Getty Images)

Tamim Iqbal is a possible candidate to lead Bangladesh in the future. The opening batsman has been one of the most consistent players for the team over the years and is amongst the leading run-scorers. He often gets the team off to good starts and lays a good foundation.

But for leading the side, he might not be the best option. Tamim has only led the Bangladesh team once in a Test match against New Zealand during the 2016-17 tour. Regular skipper Mushfiqur Rahim wasn’t available for the second Test and the team was already 0-1 down in the series.

In that game, Tamim didn’t make the best use of his bowlers. Shakib Al Hasan, the best bowler in the first innings, was introduced into the attack quite late. As a batsman, he failed in that match scoring just 13 runs in both the innings. He will soon be leading the team in the ODI series against Sri Lanka.