IPL 2018: 5 players who captained IPL teams before their national sides

Virat Kohli led Royal Challengers Bangalore a year before leading India for the first time
Virat Kohli led Royal Challengers Bangalore a year before leading India for the first time

If there is one competition which cricketers can vouch for to gain from the most, not just financially but even in terms of cricketing and non-cricketing skills, it is the Indian Premier League. For instance, South African skipper and Chennai Super Kings’ Faf du Plessis considers the IPL much like a business employee getting 6-7 weeks of on-the-job training and paid for it well too, in an overseas location along with the best in the business. He is amongst the many who considered having picked out someone like MS Dhoni’s brains in terms of the way he approaches situations in the game.

When it comes to leadership as well, an IPL team is about heterogeneity in terms of skillset, mindset, experience and more so, nationalities. It can be tricky at times to assemble a group and make them play together in a short span of time. Achieving mastery at it can surely give a player the confidence to go on to lead other teams, such as their country when they earn the opportunity to do so.

So across the 10 seasons of the IPL so far, there has been an elite club of 5 players so far who have led an IPL team before they went to captain their respective national sides. Some have tasted success in both the ventures, some have failed. Yet it is quite an achievement and shows their developments as players overall.


#1 Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli has been exceptional in having never been a part of any IPL auction till date. Since 2008, he has only featured for RCB. It is quite possible that he was studying the likes of Rahul Dravid, Kevin Pietersen, Anil Kumble and Daniel Vettori. These are all the big names that he had played under for the first five seasons of the competition. This is beside the fact that he was groomed under MS Dhoni’s leadership ever since he began playing for India in the same year.

This is not to discredit Kohli’s persona and natural ability to lead, having been at the helm of India’s Under-19 World Cup 2008 in Malaysia, few months before the IPL. Yet, he himself credits taking more self-responsibility after a poor 2012 IPL season. In 2013, he led RCB for the first time. During this time, he transformed himself from being a brash, arrogant talent to a committed, wholesome player who treats his fitness, attitude and batting as equally important.

With form supporting him, Kohli was the obvious choice to lead India the moment Dhoni stepped down from any format. He stepped in to lead in a few ODIs in 2014. While in Tests, he led the team in Australia to a close defeat and a well-fought draw in 2014. While he was appointed India’s full-time ODI and T20I captain in 2016 and the rest they say is history.

Under Kohli, India haven’t lost a single ODI and T20I series so far and just the one Test series, in South Africa earlier this year. He is on the way of smashing the records of his much-esteemed successors.

#2 Steve Smith

Steve Smith led Pune Warriors India in one game in 2012 for the first time in the IPL
Steve Smith led Pune Warriors India in one game in 2012 for the first time in the IPL

Steve Smith’s story is another one of transformation, albeit in a different context. This is why he is considered to be by many as the best in Test cricket and one of the best in all formats of the game. From being a leg-spinner who would bat lower down the order for cameos, Smith used his time out of the Australian side during the period of 2011-2013 to convert himself into a full-fledged batsman who can play at any gear when required. This is something he always wished to achieve.

His progress was noticed in the cricketing world even before he became the success that he is today. Around the same time, he was leading the Sydney Sixers in the Big Bash.

In the IPL, a struggling Pune Warriors India gave him an opportunity for the first time to captain in 2012, when it was decided that a beleaguered Sourav Ganguly won’t play in a match against RCB in Bengaluru. Though Pune lost the game, it marked a rare instance of a player, that too an overseas one, leading an IPL franchise in a game before their national team.

It was in December 2014 when Smith led Australia for the first time in 3 Tests against India, though stepping in for Michael Clarke. Establishing himself as his country’s top batsman and in the IPL as well, Smith started captaining Australia full-time after the Ashes 2015 in England. He went on to lead the now-defunct Rising Pune Supergiant to the finals of the IPL 2017. Come 2018, and he will at the helm of the Rajasthan Royals, his IPL team from 2014-2015.

#3 Rohit Sharma

Rohit Sharma captained Mumbai Indians for 5 seasons before standing in as India's ODI and T20 skipper
Rohit Sharma (left) led Mumbai Indians for 5 seasons before standing in as India's ODI and T20 skipper

Many would have earlier felt that Rohit Sharma would break many Indian batting records after his breakthrough debut season in 2007-08. He was considered to be a batting talent who was elegant yet lazy who was using up someone else’s place in the Indian team, more than using his skill. As he struggled initially to retain his spot in the playing XI, he was growing leaps and bounds in the IPL.

So much so that during the 2013 season, he replaced someone of Ricky Ponting’s calibre as captain of the Mumbai Indians side after the first six games itself. It seemed to be more of an SOS than a calculated move at first. For all his inexperience in leadership though, Rohit led Mumbai admirably well to their first-ever IPL title that season itself. Since then, there was no looking back as he established himself as a dangerous white-ball batter for whichever team he played.

The leadership lessons he learnt in Mumbai, thinking on his own as well as working with the likes of Ponting, Tendulkar and Kumble, seemed to give him more momentum. With MS Dhoni’s support in the Indian set-up, Rohit quickly ascended to the vice-captaincy position in ODIs and T20Is. Even if he can’t get to lead India full-time just as yet due to Kohli’s success, he has stepped in if he is injured or rested.

He captained India for the first time in a 3-match ODI and T20I series at home against Sri Lanka in late 2017, with the hosts winning both of them.

#4 Brendon McCullum

CLT20 2012 Group A - Kolkata Knight Riders v Auckland Aces
Brendon McCullum unsuccessfully led Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL 2009

The former New Zealand wicketkeeper-batsman makes another special list. Brendon McCullum made a name for himself as this reckless, aggressive and entertaining opening batsman who would look to win at all costs. So T20 cricket proved to be his kind of format and Kolkata Knight Riders was the first team to recognize that in the IPL.

After an under-par 2008 season, McCullum replaced Sourav Ganguly for the following one in South Africa in 2009. With this decision announced virtually at the 11th hour, it was likely that the Kiwi wasn’t prepared to step up for the challenge. With their then-coach John Buchanan’s now-infamous multiple captains theory, the Kiwi was definitely not the ideal man to diffuse the evident confusion reigning in the KKR outfit.

Consequently, Kolkata finished at the bottom of the points table, winning just 3 games out of 14. But to McCullum’s credit, that season did not discourage him when it came to pursuing his leadership aspirations for New Zealand. He too changed himself to be a more conscientious cricketer who not only respected opponents more, but also who looked to excel at his own skills to inspire his colleagues to do well themselves.

He was named New Zealand’s captain in all formats in 2012, though he actually led them for the first time as a stand-in skipper in 2009 itself. Perhaps learning his lessons from failure, McCullum changed New Zealand’s image to the rest of the cricketing world, making them competitive and fearless without over-the-top aggression in two years’ time. Under him, the Kiwis reached the World Cup 2015 final and played in drawn Test series against the likes of England and Pakistan in their backyard, while being nearly invincible at home.

#5 David Warner

David Warner's captaincy experience at SRH in the IPL inspired him to lead Australia as their stand-in skipper
David Warner's captaincy experience at SRH in the IPL inspired him to lead Australia as their stand-in skipper

Much like McCullum, David Warner started out as an in-your-face, loud opponent who could take games away with the bat or in the field as if he owns the game. The Australian opener could have never been considered a leader, following his altercation at a bar with England’s Joe Root in Birmingham in 2013. Following his suspension from being selected in Ashes Tests that summer, Warner realized the importance of marrying his talent with the ideal attitude.

Warner had already become an IPL star during this period, but it was in 2015 when he was named the captain of Sunrisers Hyderabad. Like Steve Smith, Warner too had led a Big Bash team before an IPL one, yet this was at a bigger scale indeed.

The Sunrisers were perhaps impressed not only with Warner’s much-improved understanding of the game, but also a marked change in his behaviour due to off-field decisions of his such as getting married, having children and abstaining from alcohol.

The Aussie remarkably enjoyed the challenge of leading an IPL side almost immediately. Although the Sunrisers failed in 2015, they bounced back under Warner to win the title for the first time in 2016 and making it to the playoffs in 2017.

The insights Warner has gained from the IPL has coincided with him going on to establish himself as arguably the best opening batsman in all formats of the game today. Being the vice-captain for more than two years, the Aussie led the national team for the first time in the summer of 2016 in an ODI series against Sri Lanka, when Smith was rested. While he led the T20I team for the first time this year in the triangular series in Australia and New Zealand, with England participating in it. Australia won both the competitions.

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Edited by Amar Anand