Till a few years earlier, a convoluted theory had gained currency in Indian cricketing discourse. It went like this. Captaining the Indian cricket team is a high-pressure assignment and the person who took this role inevitably saw his batting form decline. The greatest of them cemented this theory when he surrendered captaincy to protect and prolong his batting career.
Subsequently, some bizarre arguments suggesting the captain need not even bat, he just had to lead well, have surfaced. Then Mahendra Singh Dhoni arrived and so delightfully 'helicopter'ed these theories out of our collective sight.
The stock market has been suffering from a lack of a captain's knock ever since it received the sub-prime triggered blow some five years ago. This period also coincided with the protracted slump in the form of the captain. Reliance Industries has been just a shadow of its former self during this time. BSE data showed the adjusted stock price at the peak of the bull run in 2008 was Rs 1,581 (January 15, 2008). Though the stock has recovered from the sub-600 levels it had hit towards the end of that year in the weeks following the collapse of Lehman Brothers and subsequent upheavals, it is far away from that high.
While the legal battles dogged the initial years, the favourable judgment did not help. A buy-back offer helped prevent further decline but did not trigger forward movement. Diversifications into retail and telecom did not inspire enough confidence to break into the four-figure territory.
The recent government move on gas pricing, though criticised heavily by policy watchers, has given new hope. The stock, below the Rs 800-mark, has been flexing muscles for the past couple of weeks and is asking questions to the Rs 900-level, which it had not seen in six months.
The vice-captain, once the darling of the Street, is also on a comeback campaign. Led by its old warhorse, Infy has been on a cruise. It started the month of May at Rs 2,234. Today, it costs 500 bucks more. Eighty per cent of those gains came after the return of founder N R Narayana Murthy as executive chairman. Murthy's measures will reflect in the numbers over the next couple of quarters. Is the Street expecting too much from him? Will Murthy and Murty exceed these expectations?
Between them, the big two account for a fifth of the Sensex in weightage but in terms of sentiment, they mean a lot more. They are the match winners, who can drive the index past the end-line, even in adverse conditions. When on a run, they can draw in the straying foreign investors, they can ride the volatile rupee as if it was a surfboard and make the tired government look as good as Madhuri Dixit.
If the market were to break out of the insurmountable trinity of high rates, a falling rupee and the ballooning current account deficit, Kohli has to dig in and MS has to do the finishing. The captain might be hurt and he might be limping but he has to ask for that heavy bat and swing it hard.
