Gautam Gambhir Captaincy Record
India & IPL · 2009-2018
Career snapshot
Int’l Matches
6 winsIPL Matches
71 winsICC Titles
—IPL Titles
2012, 2014 (KKR)Format-wise record
| Format | Span | Mat | Won | Lost | Tied | NR | Win% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ODI | 2010-2011 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 100.00% |
| IPL (Delhi Capitals / KKR) | 2009-2018 | 129 | 71 | 57 | 1 | 0 | 55.43% |
IPL captaincy records by team
| Team | Span | Mat | Won | Lost | Tied | NR | Win% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delhi Capitals | 2009-2018 | 21 | 10 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 47.62% |
| Kolkata Knight Riders | 2009-2018 | 108 | 61 | 46 | 1 | 0 | 56.94% |
Notable Achievements
- ICC Titles0: His ODI captaincy was a brief with an unbeaten 6-match stand-in stint (2010-2011). But he won T20 World Cup and ICC Champions Trophy as the India coach
- IPL Titles2: both with KKR (2012, 2014); Delhi Daredevils/Capitals never won a title under him
- Longest streak as an IPL captainLed KKR in 108 consecutive matches from 2011-2017, the longest unbroken captaincy streak for a single franchise in IPL history
India captaincy
Gautam Gambhir’s captaincy record for India is small on paper and easy to overlook next to the runs he scored in someone else’s era. He led India in six ODIs between late 2010 and late 2011, standing in while Dhoni was rested, and won every single one, a perfect record that’s more a quirk of a short sample than a real body of work. It’s not tied to any ICC event, and it never turned into anything longer.
What he’s actually remembered for internationally is what he did under other captains: 75 off 54 balls in the 2007 T20 World Cup final and 97 off 122 in the 2011 World Cup final, the top individual score in both games, both of which India won.
IPL captaincy
Delhi and the move to Kolkata
Gambhir first captained in the IPL with Delhi Daredevils, leading them across 21 matches for a mixed record, 10 wins and 11 losses, a 47.62% win rate, spread out over a stretch that included his return to the franchise for one final season in 2018. That later stint didn’t go well: Delhi struggled, and Gambhir stepped down as captain in April 2018, handing the job to a young Shreyas Iyer before retiring from all cricket at the end of the season.
Kolkata Knight Riders, 2011-2017
The real weight of Gambhir’s captaincy sits with Kolkata Knight Riders. KKR picked him up at the 2011 auction and made him captain immediately, and he led them in 108 consecutive matches through 2017, the longest unbroken captaincy stretch by a single franchise captain in IPL history. He won 61 of those games, a 56.48% win rate, and delivered two titles, in 2012 and 2014, beating Chennai Super Kings and Punjab Kings, respectively, in the finals. Across both franchises combined, he captained 129 IPL matches for 71 wins, a 55.03% win rate, and the two titles put him in company with only Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni among captains who’ve won the IPL more than once.
Beyond the armband
Gambhir’s playing career ended in December 2018. What followed took a while to point toward cricket again. He spent 2019 to 2024 as a member of parliament for the BJP, representing East Delhi, before stepping away from politics to return to the game as a mentor, first at Lucknow Super Giants for two seasons, then at KKR for 2024, where the team he used to captain won a third title with him now working from outside the playing XI.
That third KKR title turned out to be an audition. In July 2024, the BCCI named him head coach of the Indian men’s team, succeeding Rahul Dravid, despite Gambhir having no prior coaching experience at international or domestic level. It’s worked out about as well as a first coaching job can: India won the 2025 Champions Trophy, the 2025 Asia Cup, and the 2026 T20 World Cup under him, making him the first Indian coach to win two ICC trophies. The six unbeaten ODIs he led as a player were a footnote. What he’s building as a coach isn’t.
