Stats: Players who have led a team in the IPL

The Delhi Daredevils team was centred around Zaheer Khan, the veteran former Indian pacer and the skipper of the team. They picked a young squad with Rahul Dravid as the mentor and a lot of emphasis on Zak to lead them and make a wave in the tournament on the lines of what Shane Warne achieved with the Rajasthan Royals in the inaugural edition of the IPL.

Zaheer had to miss out on a couple of games due to a hamstring injury, at 38 the body definitely demands more rest than a player is spared with in a busy tournament like the IPL. JP Duminy was their vice-captain in the previous edition and Quinton de Kock the next in line, but owing to the Champions Trophy both the South African players pulled out from the tenth season of the tournament.

Now, with Zaheer injured the team management had the option of either opting for a young Rishabh Pant who has little experience except of course leading the Delhi side in the Vijay Hazare Trophy or opting for Karun Nair who has been around for a lot longer and had earned a lot of respect even before the triple hundred against England with his domestic exploits.

Karun led Delhi in the away game against the Kings XI Punjab and it was disastrous, the team crumbled at Mohali and could post just 67 runs on the board. In the next match playing against a strong Sunrisers Hyderabad side not a lot of people expected them to challenge SRH after watching David Warner dismantle the muscular Kolkata Knight Riders bowling attack.

They allowed SRH to score 185 but were absolutely professional in their chase, and won the game by 6 wickets with 5 balls to spare. With his escalation Karun Nari became the 44th player to lead a team in the Indian Premier League.

Here is the list of players who have captained a team in the IPL:

Owing to their limited success in the ten seasons of the tournament it is pretty understandable that DD and KXIP are the two teams who have changed their skippers most times.

Here is the list of captains who have led DD in the IPL: 

Here is the list of players who have captained KXIP:

There are two players who have not only played for both the teams but have also held the captaincy responsibilities. Virender Sehwag and Sri Lankan Mahela Jayawardene led DD in 53 and 30 matches respectively.

Among players hailing from Karnataka Nair is just the third player from the state to captain an IPL team. Two Indian legends Rahul Dravid (RR and RCB) and Anil Kumble (RCB) had in the past led their respective teams.

(All stats updated till May 3, 2017)

Stats by HR Gopal Krishna