IPL captains and their current salaries

The 13th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) will get going on Saturday, September 19 with defending champions Mumbai Indians taking on Chennai Super Kings at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. The cash-rich and prestigious tournament has revolutionized the game in terms of money. Until the advent of IPL, even marquee players were not paid as high as they, currently, are in the league. However, as time passed by, not only did the league turn a popular one accross the cricket globe, even the players’ salaries kept going up, showing the amount of revenue generated from the IPL. In this article, the author shall talk about the salaries of the current captains of the IPL teams: – 1. Virat Kohli (Royal Challengers Bangalore) – 17 Crore Virat Kohli practices during RCB’s nets session. (Photo Source: Twitter) Virat Kohli is the highest-paid cricketer in the history of the cash-laden league. He was retained for 2 crore more than the highest retention price during the mega auction by the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). He is the only player to have played for a single franchise till date. However, Virat the captain, has been a pale shadow of Virat the batsman in the league. He is the only marquee captain in the list to not have won a single IPL. His only noteworthy achievements include leading RCB to the semi-finals in 2015, and finals in 2016. Virat would be looking to mend ways this year. RCB have a strong team, and the 31-year-old Kohli would surely be looking to execute his plans properly. 2. Rohit Sharma (Mumbai Indians) – 15 Crore Rohit Sharma. (Photo: IANS) Rohit Sharma is the most successful captain in the history of the league with 4 IPLs as captain of Mumbai Indians. He was retained by the Mumbai-based franchise ahead of the mega auctions for a price of INR 15 crore. Sharma joined Mumbai Indians in 2011. He was handed over the baton in 2013 after Australia’s Ricky Ponting quit as the captain midway in 2013. After that, he never looked back, making MI the most successful league in the tournament. Rohit would be looking to continue the momentum as the defending champions. The major challenge he shall face this year as captain is to wash away the bad memories of the last time MI played in the UAE, losing all 5 games. 3. MS Dhoni (Chennai Super Kings) – 15 Crore MS Dhoni. (Photo Source: Manjunath Kiran/AFP/GettyImages) The most successful captain for India, and the most consistent captain in the league, MS Dhoni has led CSK to 3 title wins. He was retained by CSK before the mega auctions in 2018 for a price of 15 crore. The Jharkhand-born Dhoni joined CSK in 2008. He was also a part of RPS from 2016 to 2017. Besides winning 3 times, CSK under Dhoni has always reached the semi-finals/playoffs, and have played 8 finals. MS Dhoni retired from international cricket on 15th August, 2020. He will be seen in competitive cricket for the first time post India’s WC semi-final exit. Needless to say, Dhoni is expected to do a great job this time around as well. He has a strong spin attack and an experienced batting lineup, which would be handy in the pitches of UAE. 4. David Warner (Sunrisers Hyderabad) – 12.5 Crore David Warner. (Photo Source: Twitter) David Warner has been the best foreign captain in the history of the league. He led a relatively weaker SRH squad to their first title in 2016, against a star-studded RCB lineup. He joined SRH in 2014, and he has been consistent every year since then. Warner did not lead the SRH side last time around, owing to the ban he was facing, post the Sandpaper saga. However, he stepped up with the bat, scoring 692 runs in 12 innings- winning the Orange Cap. He complemented Kane Williamson well on the field. Warner is set to get back the reigns this season. He has been a little out of form with the bat recently. SRH would be hoping that he comes back into form from the word go. They have been heavily reliant on Warner and Rashid over the past 3-4 years. 5. Steve Smith (Rajasthan Royals) – 12.5 Crore Steve Smith. (Photo Source: Twitter) Steve Smith was retained by the Royals in 2018 at a price of 12.5 crore. However, his one-year ban led to Rajasthan banning him for a year, and appointing Ajinkya Rahane as the stand-in captain. He was retained by the Royals in 2019 as well. After RR were on a disappointing roll last season, losing 6 out of their 8 games in the round-robin stage, Smith was given the reigns and Rahane stepped down as captain for the rest of the season. With Rahane being traded to Delhi Capitals (DC) this year, RR have Smith as their obvious captain choice. His experience of having played in the UAE shall help the Royals in this year’s edition. 6. KL Rahul (Kings XI Punjab) – 11 Crore KL Rahul. (Photo Source: Twitter) KL Rahul is the only player in the list to have never permanently captained an IPL team. Rahul was purchased by Kings XI Punjab for 11 crore, after RCB released him in the 2018 auction. It was the joint-third highest price a player was purchased for in that auction. The Karnataka-born KL did not disappoint Punjab at all, scoring runs at will. He consistently gave good starts along with six-machine Chris Gayle, scoring 659 and 593 runs respectively. After Ashwin’s trade to the Delhi Capitals this year, KL was made the captain of Punjab for IPL 2020. His first assignment as captain is surely not going to be an easy one, and it is yet to be seen how he performs under crunch situations as captain. 7. Dinesh Karthik (Kolkata Knight Riders) – 7.4 Crore Dinesh Karthik. (Photo: Kuntal Chakrabarty/IANS) Karthik was purchased by Kolkata in the year 2018 for a price of 7.4 crore. He was also named as the captain of the team, and he did not disappoint. He led KKR to the playoffs, and demonstrated great skills as a captain. However, the last season did not pan out as expected. KKR lost 6 games on the trot after winning 4 out of their first 5 fixtures. There were also disagreements between him and star-player Andre Russell concerning Russell’s batting position in the lineup. KKR probably have the strongest team on paper. Dinesh Karthik will be expected to lead the side well, with support staff such as Brendon McCullum and David Hussey to guide him. 8. Shreyas Iyer (Delhi Capitals) – 7 Crore Shreyas Iyer. (Photo: IANS) Shreyas Iyer was purchased by Delhi in 2015 at a price of 2.6 crore, making him the highest-earning uncapped player of the season. He also won the Emerging Player of the Tournament in 2015. He was made captain in 2018, and retained for a price of 7 crore. Iyer has led the young Delhi side pretty well. He took them to the Qualifier 2 last year with his astute captaincy skills. He was also the youngest captain in the history of Delhi when he was handed over the baton by Gautam Gambhir. Under Ricky Ponting and Sourav Ganguly, Iyer has really grown as a captain. This year’s IPL shall be a real test of Iyer’s prowess. With the tournament away from home, it shall be interesting to see how Iyer makes use of his spinners in conditions friendly for them. ~Written by Shayan Khan

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IPL captains and their current salaries

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