Coaches gaining upper hand, internationals taking backseat; Is ITL taking T20s to the football way?

Nitish Rana, Sanju Samson & KL Rahul (Image credit: Twitter)

Today's surge in T20 cricket has not only changed the mindset of players in terms of style of play, but also the strategies and game plan of teams. Coaching and backroom staff take key decision-making roles, with data and pre-game analysis playing an important role. The Indian T20 League has four strategic timeouts in every game, which help coaches directly influence games apart from hand signals from the dugout or sending messages through boundary fielders or squad members. Ahead of the 16th edition of the cash-rich league, let's take a look at how the ITL is slowly taking T20 cricket the way of football.

When Gujarat named Hardik Pandya as their captain last season, everyone raised eyebrows. But the all-rounder, who had no previous captaincy experience, led his team to glory in their first season. Many would have noticed their head coach Ashish Nehra animatedly gesturing key moves from the dugout to Hardik, including which bowler to bowl a particular over.

The newly appointed captain did not hesitate to take such advice and his childhood coach Jitendra Singh said that Hardik "knows and values good suggestions".

Franchises rely on the coaching staff while players are in the middle

Nitish Rana, Sanju Samson and KL Rahul are not the names that come to the leadership position so quickly. But all three will lead their respective franchises this season. Even Suryakumar Yadav, who has never captained an ITL team, will have to lead Mumbai as Rohit Sharma has opted to sit out a few matches this season to manage his workload. Kolkata has experienced overseas players like Shakib Al Hasan, Sunil Narine and Tim Southee in their squad. But Rana was chosen to replace the injured Shreyas Iyer.

It is an unknown truth that coaches are slowly gaining an upper hand in T20 cricket. Team management wants to rely on the coaching staff in the dugout to guide the captain and players through messages and pre-decided moves. When the team is batting and the captain is in the middle, the responsibility of deciding the batting order and other critical decisions eventually falls on the coaching staff. And from this season, the coach may also decide on the use of an 'Impact Player'.

New Zealand legend Daniel Vettori, who coached Bangalore in the past, expressed his opinion that the time has come to have a communication channel open between the coach and the captain. He believes this will help an inexperienced captain and lead him to become a successful leader in the future.