IPL 2020: Rating the captains of all teams in the league stage

6. KL Rahul- 6.5/10

The Kings XI Punjab’s (KXIP) IPL 2020 campaign was riddled with a fluctuating series of ecstatic highs and unsavoury lows. The one constant they had all season was their captain KL Rahul’s scintillating batting form at the top.

The early phase of Punjab’s IPL campaign saw Rahul shoulder the bulk of KXIP’s run-scoring duties all by himself. His tally of 670 runs put him at the pinnacle of the Orange Cap leaderboard by a sizeable margin. Besides his batting, the Team India keeper also turned up with a much-improved performance behind the stumps.

But unfortunately, his stellar on-field performances weren’t enough to compensate for his tactical howlers, a few of which ultimately cost his team a playoff spot. The likes of Glenn Maxwell, Chris Jordan and James Neesham were given a frustratingly long rope despite their (mostly) poor form. Much of their bench strength went untested all through the tournament.

There was an additional aspect of Rahul failing to keep his nerves calm under pressure. Decisions like bowling Krishnappa Gowtham in a clutch, final over, promoting an inexperienced Prabhsimran Singh ahead of Maxwell, choosing Nicholas Pooran for a super-over, despite his poor record in that format, suggest that the burden of captaincy did have an effect on Rahul’s temperament.

It will be interesting to see how well his maiden full-time captaincy stint grooms him for his upcoming vice-captaincy promotion in the national team. For this IPL, though, Rahul scores 6.5.