IPL Captaincy Records
Most of the IPL teams have played safe by choosing the same skipper for their teams, who have previously led them to IPL trophies. The IPL franchises have appointed their captains for this season. And the management has opted for their best player for the position. The common trait between Dinesh Karthik, MS Dhoni, David Warner, Virat Kohli, Gautam Gambhir, R Ashwin, Steve Smith and Rohit Sharma is that they all have performed exceptionally well and stood out from rest of the players in IPL and at international level.
Let us have a look at some captaincy records in IPL that few of the current captains have already achieved and few other must be aiming for this season. MS Dhoni has played 143 matches, most matches as a captain in IPL for Chennai Super Kings and Rising Pune Supergiants. Out of which, his team won 83 games with win percent of 58.45.
Steve Smith has led Pune Warriors, Rajasthan Royals and Rising Pune Supergiants in 24 matches. Smith side has won 16 games with a win percent of 66.66. Rohit Sharma has a winning percent of 60.66. He has led Mumbai Indians in 75 matches, and MI has won 49 matches and lost 29 in his leadership.
As a contributor in IPL, captain of RCB, Virat Kohli has scored 4418 runs in 141 innings with an average of 37.44. He has second most runs in the IPL followed by the captain of Mumbai Indians. Rohit Sharma has scored 4207 runs in 154 innings with an average of 32.61. David Warner, captain of Sunrisers Hyderabad, is at fifth position. Warner has scored 4014 runs in 114 innings. He has a phenomenal average of 40.54 and batting strike rate of 142.13. MS Dhoni is also under top 10 lists of players having most runs in IPL career. He has scored 3561 runs in 143 innings with an average of 37.88.
Dinesh Karthik, captain of Kolkata Knight Riders has most 106 dismissals as a wicketkeeper in 136 IPL innings. Karthik is followed by MS Dhoni who has 102 dismissals in 152 matches. These captains are nonetheless in their fielding skills. Rohit Sharma has taken 71 catches so far and ranked third among the players with most catches in IPL. Virat Kohli has taken 60 catches, and he stands at number six followed by David Warner with 52 catches. In bowling, R Ashwin has taken 100 wickets in 108 innings with an economy of 6.54, and he has best bowling figure of 4/34.
MS Dhoni has led Chennai Super Kings to win two IPL trophies in 2010 and 2011. Rohit Sharma has led his team to three IPL titles - 2013, 2015, 2017. Warner has led Sunrisers Hyderabad to win their first IPL trophy in 2016. Gautam Gambhir, the current captain of Delhi Daredevils, has led Kolkata Knight Riders to win the 2012 and 2014 season of IPL.