IPL History: 3 Players you might not know once led a team in IPL

The auction for IPL 2020 is just around the corner as all the fans and players gear up for yet another season of the world’s grandest T20 league. Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings have been the most successful teams in the IPL history as they share seven IPL titles between themselves.

The most interesting thing about the championship victories of both the teams is that all the title wins have come under the captaincy of one player. Rohit Sharma has guided his home franchise to four IPL trophies while under MS Dhoni’s leadership, the Super Kings have lifted the IPL trophy thrice. This statistic signifies the captain’s importance in IPL teams.

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However, there have been several instances where the regular captain is unavailable for the team and in his absence, the franchises have had to nominate a standby skipper. Over the years, there have been multiple such occasions in the IPL and there have been players who have led their sides in only one or two matches.

In this article, we will have a look at the three players you might not know once led an IPL team.

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#3 Parthiv Patel

Parthiv Patel captained Kochi Tuskers Kerala against Chennai Super Kings

The now-disbanded Kochi Tuskers Kerala team had a bunch of experienced players like VVS Laxman, Mahela Jayawardene, Brendon McCullum, RP Singh and Brad Hodge in their squad. The Kochi-based franchise played only a solitary IPL season and Jayawardene captained the side.

However, the Sri Lankan player could not take part in his side’s final match against Chennai Super Kings. Though the officials could have named McCullum or Hodge as their skipper for that match, they went with Parthiv Patel.

The wicket-keeper batsman did not have a winning day as a captain though. He lost the toss and his side lost the match by 11 runs. Parthiv opened the innings for Kochi but chasing a target of 153 runs, he could only score 6 runs off 7 deliveries before Ravichandran Ashwin got the better of him.

Though Hodge scored a fifty, bowling performances from Ashwin, Suresh Raina and Shadab Jakati ensured that Chennai won the match.

#2 Ross Taylor

Ross Taylor has even captained New Zealand at the international level

Ross Taylor is the only man in IPL history to have a 100% win record as a captain. He led the now-defunct Pune Warriors India against Chennai Super Kings during IPL 2013. The coin had fallen in his favour during the toss and he elected to bat first in Chennai.

The opening batsmen, Robin Uthappa and Aaron Finch, set the tone for the innings with a 96-run opening stand. Finch played the role of the aggressor with 67 runs off 45 deliveries. Taylor came out to bat at number 3 but he could only score 8 runs off 13 balls on his captaincy debut.

Steven Smith provided a solid finish to the innings as Pune posted 159 runs on the board for the loss of 5 wickets. In the second innings, Bhuvneshwar Kumar did the trick for Pune Warriors as he scalped 2 wickets in his spell, conceding 12 runs at a miserly economy rate of 3.00.

Although Subramaniam Badrinath, Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin tried to take CSK close to the target, they fell short by 24 runs. Unfortunately, the team management took the captaincy away from Taylor after the match as Finch became the side’s new leader.

#1 James Hopes

James Hopes captained Delhi Daredevils

Just like the other captains present on this list, James Hopes made his captaincy debut in the IPL against Chennai Super Kings. Virender Sehwag’s absence meant that the Delhi Daredevils had to name a new skipper for the remaining matches in IPL 2011 and the management elected James as the new leader.

He played the role of the skipper in 3 IPL matches but unfortunately; the Daredevils won none of them. Chennai Super Kings defeated them by 18 runs on Hopes’ captaincy debut. The stand-in skipper could not make an impact with his individual skills either as he bowled two wicket-less overs and scored only 8 runs with the bat.

The same story repeated in the match against Kings XI Punjab as Delhi lost the match by 29 runs. In the final match of their campaign, they locked horns with the Pune Warriors. The rainy weather in Delhi meant that the home side had to share the points with their rivals.

Delhi had generated no momentum whatsoever in that tourney as they ended at the bottom position with just 9 points in 14 matches.