7 Occasions when IPL teams changed their captains midway through the season

Indian Premier League (IPL) is the most entertaining domestic Twenty20 league in the world. All the participating teams to start with want to get their hands on that beautiful trophy. However, sometimes things don’t go as planned for some of the teams. We see one of the teams consistently losing matches and losing big. There are various reasons for that and one of the main reason is the lack of leadership. There have been many instances where the franchises have changed the captains. Sometimes it worked brilliantly and sometimes it backfired brutally. CricTracker presents to you seven instances where teams changed their captain midway through an IPL season. 1. Darren Sammy takes the armband from Shikhar Dhawan. (Sunrisers Hyderabad) Darren Sammy. (Photo Source: BCCI) Shikhar Dhawan was named the captain of the newborn Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2013. The newest franchise at that time had a wonderful outing in their maiden IPL season. Shikhar led the team from the front and successfully qualified for the playoffs only to be knocked out. In the following season, the Delhi-lad could not recreate the magic as his team went on a losing streak. The franchise, therefore, took a bold decision and replaced him with a World T20 winning captain Darren Sammy. The Caribbean led the West Indies to their maiden T20 World Cup in 2012 and was thought to be the one by the Sunrisers Hyderabad owners. They ended the season with 6 wins and 8 defeats. 2. Anil Kumble replacing Kevin Pieterson – Royal Challengers Bangalore Virat Kohli (R) and Anil Kumble. (Photo by Julian Herbert-IPL 2010/IPL via Getty Images) Kevin Pieterson broke all the records after signing with Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2009. He was bought for the whopping US $1.55 million. Rahul Dravid was asked to step down while the English star took the matter into his hands. However, that turned out to be disastrous as Pietersen could not bear the burden of the captaincy and underperformed while the team also couldn’t do any better. After he left for national duty, the veteran Anil Kumble took over the RCB team and he turned their fortunes around. RCB went on a winning streak which saw the side enter the finals of the tournament after being at the bottom in the inaugural season. Even though they lost the final by six runs that was some inspired cricket RCB played under Kumble. 3. Sachin Tendulkar passing the baton to Harbhajan Singh – Mumbai Indians (Photo Source: BCCI) Harbhajan Singh was named the stand-in captain for Champions League T20 of 2011 as Sachin was injured at the time. The Jalandhar-born off-spinner led Mumbai Indians to glory as Mumbai Indians were crowned the champions. The IPL season following that achievement saw MI change their captain. Sachin Tendulkar right before the first match of the 2012 season stepped down. He wanted to strip down the burden of captaincy and it proved right for Sachin as he scored 324 runs in the 13 matches that season. 4. Murai Vijay steps up after the sacking of David Miller – Kings XI Punjab David Miller. (Photo Source: BCCI) David Miller is one of the South African stars who has won a lot of matches for his team. During the 2016 season, Miller struggled from the start as he scraped only 76 runs in six games. The worse thing was that Miller-led Kings XI Punjab had to get over five defeats in the first six games. This prompted the management to make a change as Miller faced the sack and opener Murali Vijay took over from there on. However, this did not bring any change in the fortunes of the KXIP as they finished bottom of the league for the second time in two consecutive seasons. 5. Steve Smith takes up the captaincy from Shane Watson – Rajasthan Royals (Photo Source: BCCI) Smith was standing in during the 2015 season for his fellow countryman as the captain as he was injured at the start of the tournament. Smith led them to four consecutive wins before Watson came in and disrupted the winning habit. Watson’s takeover seemed to have affected the Royals as they were inconsistent under the veteran. However, Smith was reappointed as the captain and this saw Rajasthan Royals climb the table and make it into the top four right at the end after a thrilling victory over Kolkata Knight Riders. That was some decision by the team owners as it proved to be spot on. 6. Ricky Ponting makes way for Rohit Sharma – Mumbai Indians (Photo Source: Twitter) Ricky Ponting was bought by the Mumbai-based franchise in 2013 and was named the captain of the side. Having said that, there was a lot of buzz as Ponting and Sachin Tendulkar opened the innings for Mumbai and were nicknamed “Pondulkar”. However, this did not last long as Ponting failed to make a difference and stepped down. This allowed Rohit Sharma to work his magic as the captain and he did it ever so well. The decision worked miraculously as Mumbai Indians went on to win the league for the first time. He is still the captain of Mumbai and will lead them for the fourth consecutive year having won the trophy twice. 7. Daniel Vettori steps down as Virat Kohli takes over – Royal Challengers Bangalore Daniel Vettori RCB. (Photo Source: BCCI) Daniel Vettori the veteran New Zealand spinner did wonders for RCB as a spinner but failed when given the armband. The Indian Premier League allows four foreign players in the side and as he was the captain he had to be there on the team. As he was struggling, Daniel decided to step down and let the aggressive Virat Kohli take over as captain in 2013. His move led to a huge learning curve for Virat as a captain as he led them to a final in the 2016 edition of the cash-rich league and Vettori remains the mentor and coach of the franchise.

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7 Occasions when IPL teams changed their captains midway through the season

3. Sachin Tendulkar passing the baton to Harbhajan Singh – Mumbai Indians

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