A cricketing country like India needs one captain: Dinesh Karthik

New Delhi, March 3 (IANS) Veteran India wicket-keeper batter Dinesh Karthik believes that the concept of split captaincy would not work in the country and that one captain across all formats goes well. He added that giving the responsibility of captaincy in all formats to Rohit Sharma was the right call by the selection committee.

Sharma will debut as Test captain when India play Sri Lanka in the first Test at the IS Bindra PCA Stadium from Friday.

"A cricketing country like India needs one captain. It is very easy to deal with one captain for all three formats. I remember MS Dhoni saying that split captaincy doesn't work in India that well. We haven't had that over a period of time, so we wouldn't know. But at this point in time when I do see it, I think he (Rohit) is the man. Every time he touched something; it's turned to gold. All the series he has been a part of, he has won convincingly," said Karthik on the latest episode of ICC Review show.

Karthik was impressed with the way Sharma has used India's bowlers and experiments by the side working well. India, since Sharma took over T20I captaincy after Men's T20 World Cup ended, have inflicted 3-0 series sweeps in the format against New Zealand, West Indies and Sri Lanka.

"He has shown a lot of tactical nous in the games that he has played. Moved the bowlers around really well, giving confidence to the batters and when they've won a series, giving opportunities to the young guys. Sometimes taking a backseat, batting in a position where obviously he has not batted there for a long time. So, he is doing a lot of things right."

Under Sharma's captaincy, India has handed debuts to Deepak Hooda, Avesh Khan, Venkatesh Iyer, Harshal Patel and Ravi Bishnoi in the format, which has worked wonders for the team.

"The good thing is, there have been 2-3 debutants in his captaincy and all have done well. And that doesn't happen always. It's great to see that happening and he is somebody who is a people's person. He understands failures well. So, it is very nice that he is taking the team forward," stated Karthik.

Karthik, 36, who played under Sharma's captaincy in international as well as franchise cricket, revealed that foresight and clarity were the two qualities that stood out about the 34-year-old's leadership.

"Just as an example, the way he chooses to take DRS. The way he speaks to people and then he makes the decisions. It's very interesting the way he has always thought. I remember when I played quite a lot under him and I've always been surprised with the decisions he takes in terms of bowling changes. The way he marshals his troops."

"And when I do ask him, he'll give a very clear answer and answer it with a lot of clarity, which I've always enjoyed. Being a captain, he is always aware. I have been very impressed when on the field he's told me to do some things, and exactly that has happened within the next two-to-three balls. I have been like, 'Wow!'. You need some foresight for that to happen and I've always enjoyed that, whenever he is the captain."