Though individuals make up a team, it is the duty of the captain to keep this team together and lead the team from the front. Over the course of time, different captains have been featured to be the captain of different IPL teams. Here we check the list of captains like MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma, Kane Williamson, and others who will captain their respective sides in IPL 2022. Follow IPL 2022 Live Updates on InsideSport.IN
They say that a captain is as good as his team; but it is also true that a true leader can rally an enthusiastic bunch to do great things. From Shane Warne to MS Dhoni to Rohit Sharma — captains have played a major role in the success of teams in the world’s most competitive T20 league – the Indian Premier League.
As we gear up for the 15th season of the league and the upcoming mega auction, TimesofIndia.com highlights the leaders who are going to shape the fortunes of the ten teams who will compete for the coveted IPL trophy.
IPL 2022: Check out the captains of the 10 different franchise teams who are set to lead their teams in IPL 2022
Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni
One player synonymous with Chennai Super Kings is their charismatic skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni. He has been part of the franchise since the beginning of the league in 2008.
The only time they were apart was when the team was suspended for two years (2016 & 2017) after the betting and match-fixing scandal, when Dhoni captained the Pune franchise.
Dhoni has led CSK to four IPL titles – 2010, 2011, 2018 and 2021, and CSK are the defending champions. No wonder, the team has kept their faith in Dhoni and retained him along with India all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja, England all-rounder Moeen Ali and last season’s Orange Cap winner Ruturaj Gaikwad.
At 40, Dhoni is no longer the dreaded finisher with the bat he used to be in his heyday and these days he only plays in the IPL, after retiring from all formats of international cricket.
His last two seasons with the bat yielded just 314 runs in 30 IPL games – 200 in 2020 & 114 in 2021, without hitting a fifty. But he remains a skipper par excellence, leading the team to their fourth title last year.
Dhoni’s IPL Record: M 220 | R 4746 | HS 84* | Av. 39.55 | SR 135.83 | 23x50s | 6s – 219 | Ct – 126 | St – 39
CSK Retained Players: MS Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja, Moeen Ali, Ruturaj Gaikwad
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma
Another leader par excellence is Rohit Sharma, who has led Mumbai Indians to a record five IPL titles – the most by any team in the league. Unlike Dhoni, Rohit did not start his IPL career with MI. He was part of the now-defunct Deccan Chargers team for the first three seasons, before joining MI after the 2011 auction.
Two years later, Rohit was handed the captaincy baton in the middle of the season in 2013, from Ricky Ponting, and he came out triumphant immediately, leading MI to their first IPL title. There was no looking back after that for Rohit the MI skipper, as he led MI to four more titles in the next 8 seasons, winning in 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2020.
Along with his leadership skills, Rohit, who is also the Indian limited overs captain in international cricket currently and a frontrunner to take over as Test captain as well, has been a prolific run scorer for MI at the top of the order. Rohit is the highest run getter of all time for the Mumbai franchise, having scored 4441 runs from 2011 to 2021, with one century and 32 half centuries. He is also the third highest run-getter of the league overall, behind only Virat Kohli (6283 IPL runs) and Shikhar Dhawan (5784 IPL runs).
Rohit’s IPL Record: M 213 | R 5611 | HS 109* | Av. 31.17 | SR 130.39 | 1x100s | 40x50s | 6s – 227 | Ct – 90
MI Retained Players: Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Kieron Pollard, Jasprit Bumrah
IPL 2022: Check out the captains of the 10 different franchise teams who are set to lead their teams in IPL 2022
Delhi Capitals: Rishabh Pant
Young India wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant was promoted from vice captain to the post of captain of the Delhi Capitals in 2021, after Shreyas Iyer was ruled out with a shoulder injury. Covid forced the IPL last year to be played in two phases and though Shreyas returned for the second half, DC chose to continue with Pant as their skipper.
In his first season as skipper, Pant led DC to the top of the standings after the league stage, winning 10 of the 14 matches. But he failed to take the team to their first title, losing in Qualifier 2 against Kolkata Knight Riders.
Pant has played his entire IPL career for the Delhi franchise, after being signed by its previous avtar Delhi Daredevils in 2016, which was his debut season. He has been a consistent performer for the team since then, scoring 2498 runs so far in 84 matches, with one century and 15 half centuries. He is also of course the wicket-keeper for DC.
Pant’s IPL Record: M 84 | R 2498 | HS 128* | Av. 35.18 | SR 147.46 | 1x100s | 15x50s | 6s – 113 | Ct – 56 | St – 14
DC Retained Players: Rishabh Pant, Prithvi Shaw, Axar Patel, Anrich Nortje
Rajasthan Royals: Sanju Samson
Another new captain in the league is Sanju Samson, who was appointed Rajasthan Royals’ skipper ahead of the last season. He scored a century on captaincy debut – 119 against Punjab Kings, making him the first IPL captain to achieve the feat.
But Samson’s first season as captain ended with RR finishing 7th on the standings with just 5 wins from 14 matches, even though he personally scored a career best 484 runs in the season. He was, as expected, retained by the franchise ahead of the next edition of the player auction.
Samson was first signed by KKR in 2012 but did not get a chance to play. He made his IPL debut in the next season for RR.
Since then, he has played for RR except for the two seasons (2017-18) the team was suspended. He spent those two seasons with the erstwhile Delhi Daredevils before returning to RR in 2018.
Samson’s IPL Record: M 121 | R 3068 | HS 119 | Av. 29.21 | SR 134.20 | 3x100s | 15x50s | 6s – 132 | Ct – 59 | St – 10
RR Retained Players: Sanju Samson, Jos Buttler, Yashasvi Jaiswal
IPL 2022: Check out the captains of the 10 different franchise teams who are set to lead their teams in IPL 2022
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Kane Williamson
New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson, who was the stand-in skipper for SRH, when David Warner was not allowed to play the 2018 season due to the ball tampering scandal and then in 2019 too, before Warner was reinstated the next season.
Williamson officially took over the captaincy of Sunrisers Hyderabad midway through the last season from David Warner, who led the team to their only title so far in 2016. SRH had won just 1 game in the first 7 games under Warner in 2021, but Williamson also failed to make much of an impact, as SRH finished last in the standings with just 3 victories from 14 games.
Williamson was retained by the team ahead of the next auction, while Warner was let go.
2018 was Williamson’s best season with the bat for SRH, scoring 735 runs @52.50 to win the Orange Cap, as he led SRH to the final where they lost to Dhoni-led CSK.
Williamson has played his entire IPL career at SRH, since making his league debut in 2015.
Williamson’s IPL Record: M 63 | R 1885 | HS 89 | Av. 40.10 | SR 131.26 | 17x50s | 6s – 56 | Ct – 29
SRH Retained Players: Kane Williamson, Abdul Samad, Umran Malik
Lucknow Super Giants: KL Rahul
Two new teams are joining the league from the upcoming season, making IPL a 10-team affair. One of the two new franchises is Lucknow Super Giants and they will be led by India’s star batter KL Rahul.
Before the mega auction, LSG drafted three players – Rahul, Australian all-rounder Marcus Stoinis and young Indian leg-spinner
Ravi Bishnoi with KL as their skipper. Lucknow have in fact made KL Rahul the joint most expensive player in the IPL, signing him for Rs 17 Crore. Virat Kohli was earlier retained by RCB for the same amount, though now Virat has taken a salary cut.
Rahul was captain of Punjab Kings in the last two seasons before joining Lucknow.
Since making his IPL debut in 2013 for RCB, Rahul has established himself as one of the most consistent run-scorers of the league, scoring more than 600 runs thrice in the last four seasons. He has scored at an impressive average of 47.43 in 94 matches, aggregating more than 3000 runs.
However, it’s his captaincy credentials which will be tested when he turns up for the Lucknow franchise. In the last two seasons as Punjab Kings captain, Rahul saw his team finish sixth after the league stage both times.
He was also named stand-in skipper for the ODI series in South Africa recently, where India lost all three matches in the series under his captaincy, with his leadership skills being questioned by many.
Rahul’s IPL Record: M 94 | R 3273 | HS 132* | Av. 47.43 | SR 136.37 | 2x100s | 27x50s | 6s – 134 | Ct – 50 | St – 5
LSG Drafted Players: KL Rahul, Marcus Stoinis, Ravi Bishnoi
IPL 2022: Check out the captains of the 10 different franchise teams who are set to lead their teams in IPL 2022
Ahmedabad: Hardik Pandya
The other new team in the league – the Ahmedabad franchise will be led by India all-rounder Hardik Pandya in their debut season.
It will be the first captaincy stint for Hardik, who has played his entire IPL career at MI.
Hardik, who has been on the sidelines of National selection for some time due to the fact that he is not able to bowl at full tilt, made his IPL debut in 2015 for MI and since then played many memorable matches for the five-time champions. The allrounder has scored almost 1500 runs in the league and has taken 42 wickets in 92 games.
A big hitter and a handy pacer, Hardik has been a match winner for MI with both bat and ball but is now struggling with injuries and in fact hasn’t bowled in the last two seasons for MI. It will be interesting to see whether skipper Hardik will roll his arm over for the new team in the upcoming season.
The biggest test for Hardik the captain of course will be to lead from the front and deliver with his leadership skills for a team which has just joined the club of IPL teams.
Hardik’s IPL Record:
Batting: M 92 | R 1476 | HS 91 | Av. 27.33 | SR 153.91 | 4x50s | 6s – 98 | Ct – 53
Bowling: M 92 | W 42 | Best 3/20 | Av. 31.26 | Econ. 9.06 | SR 20.69
Ahmedabad Drafted Players: Hardik Pandya, Rashid Khan, Shubman Gill
IPL 2022: Check out the captains of the 10 different franchise teams who are set to lead their teams in IPL 2022
TEAMS WHICH ARE LOOKING FOR CAPTAINS
Three teams — RCB, KKR & PK — have not announced their captain for the upcoming season and will potentially be looking for new leaders in the upcoming mega player auction.
There of course will be many options available for them in the auction pool, both foreign and domestic.
Prominent overseas names available for leadership roles are: England skipper Eoin Morgan, Australian skipper Pat Cummins, former South African skipper Quinton de Kock & Faf du Plessis, David Warner, former Australian captain Steve Smith, former Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan, former Windies skipper Jason Holder among others.
And the prominent Indian names are: Ravichandran Ashwin, Shikhar Dhawan, Dinesh Karthik, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shreyas Iyer, Ajinkya Rahane among others.
Royal Challengers Bangalore
Virat Kohli dropped a bombshell during IPL 2021 when he announced that he will be stepping down from Royal Challengers Bangalore’s captaincy at the end of the season. Kohli had led RCB for 8 seasons without winning the coveted title. Kohli has played his entire IPL career with RCB and is the top run-getter of the league with 6283 runs from 207 games with the help of 5 hundreds and 42 fifties.
This has left RCB without a leader for the upcoming season, even though they have retained Kohli, who incidentally has also taken a Rs 2 Crore salary cut (Rs 15 Crore) along with Australia’s Glenn Maxwell and India pacer Mohammed Siraj.
The perennial underachievers will be looking for a leader along with building a new squad in the upcoming mega auction in Bengaluru.
RCB Retained Players: Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell, Mohammed Siraj
IPL 2022: Check out the captains of the 10 different franchise teams who are set to lead their teams in IPL 2022
Kolkata Knight Riders
Two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders retained four players but they let go of skipper Eoin Morgan and former captain Dinesh Karthik. KKR will potentially be looking for a new leader in the mega auction.
England’s World Cup winning skipper Morgan was appointed KKR captain before the last season and he led the team to the play-offs by finishing 4th in the league stage. They eventually finished runners-up, losing to CSK in the final by 27 runs.
Despite the good run, captain Morgan was not one of the four players retained by KKR.
KKR Retained Players: Andre Russell, Venkatesh Iyer, Varun Chakaravarthy, Sunil Narine
Punjab Kings
Punjab Kings are one of only three teams (along with DC and RCB) in the league without a trophy to show off so far (among the 8 older teams). They were led by prolific runscorer KL Rahul in the last two seasons, but their fortunes did not improve at all.
The Punjab franchise in fact haven’t qualified for the IPL playoffs since 2014, which was their best ever season, where they finished as runners-up.
Despite Rahul scoring more than 600 runs as PK skipper in the last two seasons, they finished sixth in both seasons (2020 and 2021). Before the upcoming auction, India vice-captain, Rahul was signed by the new team Lucknow as their skipper, leaving PK without a captain for the season. Punjab chose to retain only two players ahead of the next edition of the player auction.
PK Retained Players: Mayank Agarwal, Arshdeep Singh
IPL 2022: Check out the captains of the 10 different franchise teams who are set to lead their teams in IPL 2022
Editors pick
