Two brand new franchises have been added due to the massive availability of young talents in the domestic circuit of Indian cricket. The two new captains, ‘KL Rahul’ & ‘Hardik Pandya’, have been drafted by Lucknow & Ahmedabad from their previous franchises for the slot of captaincy. A significant 17 crores have rewarded KL & Hardik has been given 15 cr. In this season, all the franchises have appointed solid batters in the role of skipper for their team. No one can predict how they’ll manage their team, but here is little insight into their career and previous leadership skills.
MS Dhoni (CSK)
MS Dhoni is on the verge of retiring from the Indian Premier League. In a few recent interviews, he hinted at it by stressing the year 2023. He had played 220 IPL matches in which he scored 4746 runs with a decent strike rate of 135. His number of 220 matches is the most matches played by any player in IPL; only Rohit Sharma with 213 matches is behind him in the list. Here are few future prospects for CSK’s captaincy after MSD.
Rohit Sharma (MI)
Rohit Sharma will lead Mumbai Indians in their 10th season of IPL, which is third highest after MS Dhoni & Virat Kohli. He is the most successful captain in the history of IPL, who helped his team in clinching 5 trophy wins. His batting numbers are also phenomenal as he played 213 matches and became the third-highest run-scorer in the IPL with 5611 runs. Also, find out few captaincy prospects for Mumbai Indians in future.
KL Rahul (LSG)
KL Rahul is leading a new franchise Lucknow Supergiants this season; he was drafted from Punjab Kings, which hasn’t done much in his leadership. Rahul had 2 centuries in his IPL career with a daddy hundred of 132*(69) has come on the very last season against Royal Challengers Bangalore. Fingers crossed in this season for KL Rahul and Lucknow Supergiants.
Kane Williamson (SRH)
The Kiwi skipper had helped his team Sunrisers Hyderabad reach the final of IPL 2018 but unluckily lost against CSK. With the arrival of David Warner, the leadership had been given to him, but due to his bad form in batting & captaincy, it was again handed over to Kane. It will be intriguing to see his intact leadership in this edition of IPL.
Hardik Pandya (GT)
Hardik has been drafted out from Mumbai Indians by Gujarat Titans. He was unwilling to work with MI and accepted the offer of leadership from Gujarat Titans. But his new team is getting a couple of early blows before the start of the tournament as the only reliable guy in the top order, Jason Roy, has been ruled out of the tournament. Hardik had captained the Vadodara team in domestic tournaments, and hopefully, he will capitalize on that experience for Gujarat Titans.
Find out: Three Key Picks in Gujarat Titans Squad
Mayank Agrawal (PBKS)
Punjab Kings played a spoiler on March 16, as the management countered the sky-high anticipation of Shikhar Dhawan’s appointment as Punjab’s skipper. PBKS has put forth the name of Mayank as their new skipper; he is utterly naive in the domain of leadership. Though leading a team in the T20 format is not a big challenge, in a tournament like IPL, it becomes so crucial. He had played 12 matches last season and scored 441 runs with a decent average of 37.
Shreyas Iyer (KKR)
Shreyas Iyer had been flamboyant in the last couple of months while representing India in the international circuit. This will be his second moment as a skipper in IPL after Delhi Capitals. He had been very good with DC as he helped the team reach in playoffs, but after that, he was sacked and replaced by Rishabh Pant in the next season of IPL.
Faf du Plessis (RCB)
The South African elite has come out from Chennai Super Kings to RCB. Faf had been in super touch in the last season; he played a sublime 95* knocked against the Kolkata knight riders, and he was on no 2 in the list of highest run-getters of IPL 2021. He would be a guy who will play consistent knocks with Virat Kohli in this season for RCB.
Sanju Samson (RR)
After picking many pedigree players in the mega auction before IPL 2022, Rajasthan Royals has gone with the old skipper for this season. Sanju has been leading Rajasthan since the year 2020. Before that, Ajinkya Rahane was given this opportunity, which he failed to capitalize on. It will be interesting to see Sanju Samson’s intact strategy this season.
Rishabh Pant (DC)
Delhi capitals have been flowing in a different direction since they have changed the franchise’s name. In their first season of 2018, Delhi capitals went into the playoff, which they couldn’t from a couple of seasons before that. Then Rishabh pant was appointed the new skipper after Iyer’s injury concern, and again Delhi Capitals knocked the doors of the Playoffs in the last two seasons. Delhi capitals management & coach Ricky Ponting would be very optimistic for Rishabh pant this season.
