Former India cricketer Ajay Jadeja has made a strong statement on KL Rahul’s captaincy in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The cricketer-turned-commentator feels that the Karnataka batsman lacks leadership quality and hasn’t displayed the aura of a good skipper in the past two seasons while leading the Punjab Kings.

Rahul has led Punjab in 25 IPL games so far. Under his leadership, the team has won 11 games and lost 14. They have finished sixth in the league stages in the last couple of editions. On Sunday, they lost their 13th game to Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) by 6 runs and are currently placed fifth with 10 points.

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While speaking with Cricbuzz, Jadeja made a point that Rahul has an adjustive nature and is very soft spoken, a quality that offers longevity but not the philosophy a leader should possess.

“If you look at KL Rahul, he’s been the captain of this team for the past two years, I never get the feeling that he’s a ‘leader’. Whenever this team has gone through a good phase or a bad phase, we never look at him. The team (PBKS playing XI) that’s playing today, the changes that have been made, do you think KL Rahul would have made that?

“Someone becomes an Indian captain based on his philosophy because he should be a leader. I have not seen that in KL Rahul so far because he’s very soft-spoken and adjusts in everything. If he becomes the captain one day, then it’s a certainty he’ll last the longest because a guy ready to adjust can stay longer in that position,” Jadeja told Cricbuzz.

“But there are leadership qualities where whether or not I agree with his philosophy, the Indian captain should at least have one philosophy. Because there’s a huge difference between the captaincy of an IPL team and the Indian team,” he added.

Jadeja further highlighted that Rahul has a calm demeanour like MS Dhoni but hasn’t taken much responsibility on his shoulders as the PBKS skipper.

“I don’t know him personally and you see a different version of him too, but generally when he’s on the ground, he has the calmness like MS Dhoni. There are good things too but the biggest thing is that you need to be a leader. People should be debating your decisions, ‘Why is he doing this or that?’. That never happens to him, even in an IPL team, because he has not taken any responsibility upon himself, letting others run the team,” Jadeja concluded.