The day when the Indian Premier League started, no one knew what the league would shape up to be. Was it going to be a one-season wonder or a shady unfolding that would later be disapproved by BCCI in the way ICL was shown the exit? A lot of speculations were doing those infamous rounds. Yet somehow, on the first evening itself, when Baz smacked his way to glory with a thrilling 158, a lot of those infamous speculations were shunned straight away.
As time whizzed by, the tournament started getting better and a lot more glamorous as the amount of money that was being splurged compounded itself by leaps and bounds and the fate of the fray never seemed murkier even for a second. With all said and done about the financial spectrum of the tournament, it also led to the spotting of stars who are now rocking the Indian national team in the most scintillating ways possible.
Now when we start swivelling towards the cricketing aspect of IPL, if there is one thing that comes to the fore is the leadership ability. The captains who were handed over with the onus of building a team comprising the likes of renowned cricketers and unifying them under the same roof, did a fantabulous job of emerging as successful leaders, bringing eminent personalities under the same roof and also eliciting the best from them.
In today’s story, we will try and find out who has been the most dangerous captain in the IPL history if not successful in the glamorous sodality of India’s domestic cricket. However, if there is one thing that you should keep in mind is that this is a perspective based piece and not a fact-driven article. Hence, if you have other views, please feel free to share them with us.
Most successful captains by the number of IPL trophies:
Going by the number of silverwares lifted by the captains, Rohit Sharma holds unrivalled sway. So far, he has managed to notch up five IPL trophies which were in the years 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2020. The man who is in hot pursuit of this sanctimonious record is most likely playing his last IPL this year and that is MS Dhoni. He has managed to win three IPL trophies at the moment which were in 2010, 2011 and 2018.
However, Dhoni’s team has qualified for the knock-outs a record number of times and holds the highest numbers in that criterion.
Even if Dhoni manages to win this year’s IPL, Rohit Sharma will remain the captain with the highest number of silverwares unless some serious infringement from any other captain.
Most successful captain by win percentage:
Excluding 2021’s IPL, the man who leads the chart until now in this parameter has also been Rohit Sharma with a 60.50 win percentage. From the 119 games that he has captained until now, he has won 70 while losing 45.
Dhoni is next in the lines with a staggering percentage of 58.73. From the 190 clashes that he has led his team in, he has secured 111 victories. Sachin Tendulkar would have definitely been the second but the number of games that he has captained is comparatively a lot lesser than his counterparts.
The most dangerous captain of IPL:
Honestly, it is a challenge to pile a colossal title of the most dangerous captain of IPL. Though the numbers definitely suggest that Rohit Sharma will be the perfect choice for the same, however, captaincy goes far deeper than statistics.
If we take a look at the players that Dhoni have handled, Rohit will definitely be trailing by a proverbial mile. Dhoni has led the likes of cricketing icons in the form of Matthew Hayden, Shane Watson, Faf Du Plessis, Suresh Raina, Michael Hussey, Dwayne Bravo, Jacob Oram, Albie Morkel, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravi Ashwin, Doug Bollinger and the list gets more glamorous with every passing name.
Managing so many legends without an incident of a single fuss makes him a reckoning force in the hunt for the most dangerous captaincy stance. Sharma has definitely been a tactical mastermind and his modulations in the field and heroics with the bat have led the foundation of several Mumbai Indians victories. However, when one would look back at the truest and deepest meaning of the word “captaincy”, despite better statistics from Rohit, one wouldn’t hesitate to give the pedestal to MS Dhoni for being the most dangerous captain in IPL throughout its glittering antiquity.
