Not many franchises in the Indian Premier League had preferred overseas skippers for their franchise to lead. But, a meagre number of them had put belief on foreign horses and ultimately got paid off. The reason behind the negligence of overseas skippers is the anonymity with the atmosphere and the space of foreign slots which get permanently occupied. Franchises usually look to prefer Indian skippers, even if they are naive in IPL. In the past, IPL teams had been led by many overseas players like Mahela Jayawardene, George Bailey, David Miller and Cameron White.
Indian skippers usually have a kind of comfortability with the conditions of the Indian subcontinent. The 15th edition of the Indian Premier League will commence from March 26 by cutting the ribbon with the encounter of CSK and KKR. Also, not many players in the Indian circuit have preferred to play under a foreign leader who is utterly clueless about the playing scenarios of India. But, in the past, skippers like Shane Warne, David Warner and Kane Williamson had made the impossible thing happen into reality. Indian fans had given their love to even such abroad players who succeeded in their job, so here are the top 5 overseas captains in the history of IPL.
#1 Shane Warne (RR)
Shane Warne has been all over the classy and consistent leadership for the Rajasthan Royals. The first and the only title win for Rajasthan Royals had been achieved under the leadership of this Australian great. Shane had appeared in the 4 editions of IPL, where he picked up 57 wickets in 54 matches for RR. He played his last match against Mumbai Indians in 2011 and retired from the world’s No. 1 domestic tournament. His intact strategy and planning had made Rajasthan victorious in the very first edition of the IPL.
#2 Adam Gilchrist (DC)
He is another Australian skipper who led a franchise of the Indian Premier League to victory. In 2009 the wiki-batter Adam Gilchrist had led Deccan Chargers to the trophy win against RCB in the edition of 2009. Anil Kumble leading Royal Challengers Bangalore, had appeared for the first time in the final of IPL on May 24 and got dismantled by DC. He is among the few overseas skippers who got early success in the leadership sphere of IPL. He had played 80 matches in IPL, scoring 2069 runs with an attacking strike rate of 138.
#3 David Warner (SRH)
David ‘Explosive’ Warner has been ranked at No. 3 position in the list of successful skippers of the Indian Premier League. He had made the Sunrisers Hyderabad victorious in the 9th edition of IPL. But, he had been sacked from the captaincy and also from the team due to the worst losing streak of 5 games in a row, which SRH had achieved in the last season. He was inducted at No. 5 into the list of top run-scorers in the history of IPL with 5449 runs in 150 matches.
#4 Kane Williamson (SRH)
Though Kane Williamson failed in winning the trophy for Sunrisers Hyderabad, he put his sweat and blood into the whole battle. In the final IPL 2018, Chennai Super Kings beat SRH by 8 wickets and played a spoiler. Kane was the orange cap winner in that season; he had scored 735 runs in 17 matches. Now, SRH had again put the responsibility of captaincy on his shoulders. If he would have got fair assistance from other players like Shikhar Dhawan, Shakib Al Hasan and Deepak Hooda, SRH might win their 2nd title in the Indian Premier League in 2018.
#5 Daniel Vettori (RCB)
Royal Challengers Bangalore has been unlucky on several occasions in the IPL. They have reached the final of IPL three times but got defeated by the opposition. The NZ Legend all-rounder Daniel Vettori was the second kiwi player on the list who had been successfully cashed in the opportunity to lead. He debuted in 2008 for RCB and played 34 matches where he scored 204 runs and picked up 28 wickets. But due to poor fitness, he immediately decided to take retirement from IPL in 2012.
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