IPL 2018: 5 best captain-coach combinations in the IPL 

#3 Gautam Gambhir and Trevor Bayliss – Kolkata Knight Riders

Gambhir and Bayliss led KKR to two IPL titles.

After the first three seasons, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) were one of the biggest underachievers. They hadn’t made it to the semi-finals in the first three seasons, finishing 6th twice (in 2008 and 2010) and 8th (in 2009), In 2011, they hit the reset button as the Kolkata-based franchise started afresh.

Gautam Gambhir was bought for a record price of $2.4 million and was entrusted as the captain. In that season, KKR finally reached the top 4 but lost in the eliminator. Just before the 2012 auctions, Trevor Bayliss was appointed the head coach.

And things changed dramatically once Gambhir and Bayliss joined hands. In their first season (in 2012), they took KKR to the title as they beat favourites Chennai Super Kings in the finals. In 2013, they once again failed to reach the top 4.

But in 2014, they came back strongly to lift their second title. The way KKR came back in that season was remarkable. At one stage, it never looked like they were going to make the top 4 (as they had just two wins from 7 games), but a string of good performances pushed them up to second in the points table and they won 9 consecutive games to become the third team to win two IPL titles.

In 2015, KKR narrowly missed out on the playoff spot as rain played spoilsport in one of the games to ruin their chances. That was the last year Bayliss was a part of the KKR camp as he became the head coach of England.

However, since 2011, they’ve been one of most consistent teams and the Gambhir-Bayliss combo worked beautifully for them.