Captaincy must-haves: imagination and premonition

There's a likelihood captaincy will play a decisive part in two major Test series involving India, Australia and England in the next few months. That being the case, let's look at recent leadership trends.

The best way to gauge captaincy when you're following a game is to observe if the on-field tactics seem to have a logical pattern. If they do, there's a fair chance the skipper is on the ball. If, however, his moves bear no relationship to what the batsmen are doing, or the game situation, it probably means the captain has either dozed off or is out of his depth.

This raises an interesting point about modern captaincy. I suspect teams devote too much time to pre-match plans and too little emphasis is placed on the "gut feel" aspect of captaincy. It's fine to have a loosely formed plan for each batsman but when it's not working, that's the time to adapt quickly.

Show me a plan that regularly works against a batsman and I'll point out a slow-learning willow wielder and a very limited stroke-maker.

Situations in which "the plan remains the plan" are unmasked when fieldsmen are automatically placed to save boundaries, even for a batsman new at the crease. If these guys then remain rooted to the spot like century-old statues, despite not fielding a ball for half an hour, the captain has an imagination that runs the full gamut from A to B.

Good captains are well prepared, but they also rely on gut feeling. The premonition part of captaincy can provide a breakthrough that sparks a team's revival in a tense situation. That's why brave and inspirational leaders are often able to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

In the Oval Test, England needed a spark to defeat Pakistan when the tourists were rolling to victory. Instead of being brave and taking a gamble, Andrew Strauss opted to put all his faith in Graeme Swann. It never pays to concentrate the bulk of your efforts on taking wickets at one end, and it certainly isn't a good ploy when you need a lot of victims in a hurry.

On this evidence it's easy to conclude Strauss might struggle in Australia. A captain has to be imaginative and brave at times in Australia. This is especially true in Strauss's case because his pace attack is renowned mostly for excelling in conditions not often encountered in Australia, and judging by England's current batting form, runs will be at a premium.

Both Strauss and his bowlers better be more adaptable than they were at The Oval or else their Ashes campaign will go off track in the manner of Steve Harmison's first delivery on the last tour of Australia.

One English writer deemed this only a minor concern because "Ricky Ponting is not much of a tactician either." Sure, Ponting can be conservative but he has one major advantage over Strauss. When Ponting is pushed into a corner he will resort to all-out attack.

He did so at Trent Bridge in 2005 and very nearly pulled off an amazing victory. Attack was also the basis for Australia's unlikely win over Pakistan at the SCG last summer.

However, before he tangles with Strauss, Ponting has to confront India. MS Dhoni is tactically the most aggressive of the three captains but his confidence might be dented by leading an attack that has regressed lately. The outcome of the series against Australia could well depend on not only the performance of the Indian bowlers but also whether Dhoni can conjure up some magic that will inspire his leather-flingers.

A modern captain can find numerous reasons for being conservative; among them heavier bats and the abundance of "containment cricket" played in the shorter versions of the game. Nevertheless, there are a few simple rules of captaincy that should never change:

Aggressive field placings boost a bowler's confidence and make him think about taking wickets rather than the consequences of bowling a bad ball. The captain who performs these tasks best in India and in the Ashes will increase his team's chances of winning two tough campaigns that could well swing on one or two bold moves.