Not everyone gets the opportunity to captain a team in the IPL. Most of the IPL captains over the years have been renowned world class cricketers who proved themselves at the international level for a long period of time.
However, you would be surprised to know the names of a few lesser known players who captained the IPL teams in emergency situations in the past.
Here are the 5 players who, you might not know, captained in the IPL –
#1 James Hopes (Delhi Daredevils)
Virender Sehwag was the designated captain of Delhi Daredevils (now Delhi Capitals) in 2011, but because of his unavailability for a few games in the middle of the tournament, the Aussie all-rounder James Hopes was asked to discharge the captaincy duties.
Hopes captained Delhi in a total of 3 games out of which the team lost 2 games, while the remaining one game finished without a result. Hopes never got the opportunity to captain any other IPL team after that.
#2 Jean Paul Duminy (Delhi Daredevils)
Since Delhi had already let go of their most successful player Virender Sehwag in 2015, they hadn’t had a clear cut choice for captaincy. There were a few experienced players in the squad including the Indian all-rounder Yuvraj Singh as well, but the team management went for Duminy.
Duminy finished with a really below par record as Delhi captain. Out of the 16 games that Delhi played under his captaincy, they were able to win just 6. They were beaten 9 times, while they had to share points in one game.
#3 Darren Sammy (Sunrisers Hyderabad)
Darren Sammy has never established himself as a player in the IPL and has never had a long term contract with any team, but he was the captain of Sunrisers Hyderabad for a brief period of time.
Sammy was appointed the SRH captain in the middle of the 2014 IPL season when Shikhar Dhawan was sacked from captaincy. Sammy finished IPL 2014 with a 50% win record as IPL captain as he captained SRH to 2 wins and 2 losses in 4 games.
#4 Angelo Mathews (Pune Warriors India)
Angelo Mathews has been one of the worst performing captains in IPL. He was asked to captain on a temporary basis by Pune Warriors India in 2013. Since Mathews was the captain of the Sri Lankan national team at that stage, the franchise thought he would probably bring his international experience to the table and get the team back on track.
But as it turned out, Pune lost 4 out of the 5 games under the captaincy of Mathews and failed to qualify for the playoffs.
#5 Cameron White (Deccan Chargers/ Sunrisers Hyderabad)
The former Australian all-rounder Cameron White, who didn’t play that much of cricket at the international level, was a vital part of the Hyderabad franchise in the IPL at one point and he captained two franchises based in Hyderabad – Deccan Chargers and Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Although the playing and the supporting staff of the two teams were the same, the ownership had changed hands and hence, the name of the franchise was changed as well.
White captained the Hyderabad franchise in 12 games and ended with 7 wins and 5 losses.
