10 national captains who failed to perform in the IPL

2. Michael Clarke

Michael Clarke is widely regarded as one of the greatest cricketers of all-time. However, the Australia batsman had a disastrous IPL career when he took to the field to play for the Pune Warriors India.

Clarke failed to live up to the fans’ expectation as he only managed to score a measly 98 runs in six matches before being dropped from the playing XI. His experience and talent proved futile as Pune Warriors India finished at the bottom of the points table.

This was his first and only season in the IPL. He later settled into an analyst role to lend his expertise before and after matches.

1. Ricky Ponting

If there is a list of greatest captains of all-time, then Ricky Ponting would top that list with ease. Everyone is quite familiar with his abilities on the field. Ponting is one of the reasons why Kolkata Knight Riders were regarded as one of the favourites to win the inaugural edition of the IPL in the first place. In fact, they had both Ponting and Ganguly playing on the same team.

But this wasn’t the case as KKR had a horrible debut season with Punter barely contributing much to the team. He scored just 39 runs in four matches.

He stayed away from the IPL for a couple of years before finally returning to action in 2013 as part of the Mumbai Indians team. He was appointed as their captain. His poor form with the bat continued which resulted in him resigning as captain mid-season. This move proved to be the turning point for MI as they went on to win their first IPL title.

He finished his IPL career with 91 runs in 10 matches with a very poor average of 10.11. Ponting has now settled into a coaching role for the Delhi Capitals team.

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Edited by Vineet Aiyer