Updated: 9 April 2022
Over the years, many Indian and Overseas players have had the privilege of being captains in the Indian Premier League and leading their teams in the high esteemed tournament. However, not many have had the opportunity to lift the prestigious IPL trophy.
In fact, in its history of 13 years, only 6 captains have lifted the IPL trophy. 3 of them are Indians and 3 of them are overseas players. Surprisingly, no overseas player has lifted the trophy more than once.
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The 6 captains to have won the IPL are – Rohit Sharma (5 IPL trophies), MS Dhoni (4 IPL trophies), Gautam Gambhir (2 IPL trophies), Shane Warne (1 IPL Trophy), Adam Gilchrist (1 IPL Trophy), and David Warner (1 IPL Trophy).
In this article, we shall thus be discussing the Captaincy stats of all the IPL winning captains and try to crack which of these three has a better record in the tournament.
IPL Winning Captains List From 2008 To Date
Rohit Sharma (Mumbai Indians)
Rohit Sharma has won the highest number of IPL trophies as a captain (5) and is often referred to as the best captain in the Indian Premier League.
He made his captaincy debut for Mumbai Indians in the year 2013 as he replaced Ricky Ponting. The rest is history and as we know, he has held MI’s captaincy position to date. Rohit won the IPL on his debut season and immediately became a fan favorite. He won an IPL trophy in every alternate season, i.e, 2013, 2015, 2017, and 2019, and the chain was finally broken when he won consecutive IPLs in 2019 and 2020.
Rohit Sharma has played 129 matches in IPL as a captain. He has won 75 matches, lost 50 matches, and tied 4 matches. That brings down his Win percentage (Win%) to 58.13%.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni
Mahendra Singh Dhoni is the only player in the Indian Premier League to have captained the same team (CSK) in all the seasons of the Indian Premier League so far.
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He has won 4 IPL titles with CSK – one each in 2010, 2011, 2018, and 2019. CSK has also reached the highest number of finals in the IPL under his captaincy. Mahendra Singh Dhoni has played 204 matches for CSK as their captain. He has won 121 matches and lost 82 matches. He has never tied an IPL match. His Win percentage is 59.60% which is the highest in the history of the IPL.
Gautam Gambhir
After Rohit Sharma and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Gautam Gambhir is the most successful captain in the Indian Premier League.
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He won 2 IPL titles (2012 and 2014) as the captain of Kolkata Knight Riders and it was under his captaincy that KKR reached its peak form. However, he made his captaincy debut in 2009 with Delhi Daredevils and not with KKR. He moved to KKR in 2011.
Gautam Gambhir has played 129 matches as a captain in the Indian Premier League. He has won 71 matches, lost 57 matches, and tied 1 match. His Win % is 55.42%.
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Shane Warne
– Shane Warne won the very first edition of the Indian Premier League as the captain of the Rajasthan Royals. He was the captain of Rajasthan for three seasons – 2008 and 2011 and is one of the legendary players to have captained an IPL team.
He played 55 matches in the Indian Premier League for Rajasthan Royals as their captain. He won 30 matches, lost 24 matches, and tied 1 match. His win percentage is 55.45%.
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Adam Gilchrist
– Adam Gilchrist has been the captain of two different IPL teams – Deccan Chargers and Kings XI Punjab. He was able to win the IPL trophy with Deccan Chargers in 2009 but failed to repeat this achievement with Punjab.
He made his captaincy debut in 2008 for Deccan Chargers and played his last match in IPL as a captain in 2013 for Kings XI Punjab. He has played 74 matches in IPL as a captain. He won 35 matches, lost 39 matches, and tied 0 matches. His Win % is 47.29%.
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David Warner
– David Warner started his IPL career as a player for Delhi Daredevils but after his move to Sunrisers Hyderabad, he was made their captain. And he was immensely successful in his captaincy career over there.
He made his captaincy debut in 2013 and was removed from captaincy by the SRH management in 2021 before being removed from the team itself. He won the 2016 IPL with SRH as their captain and also reached the final in the 2018 IPL.
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He played 69 matches as a captain in the IPL. He won 35 matches, lost 32 matches, and tied 2 matches. His win percentage is 52.17%.
Let us now look at the table of combined stats of all the IPL winning captains:-
| Player Name | Country | Teams Captained | Matches | Won | Lost | Tied | Trophies Won | Seasons Won |
| MS Dhoni | India | CSK | 204 | 121 | 82 | 0 | 59.60 | 2010,2011,2018, 2021 |
| Rohit Sharma | India | MI | 129 | 75 | 50 | 4 | 58.13 | 2013,2015,2017,2019,2020 |
| Gautam Gambhir | India | DD, KKR | 129 | 71 | 57 | 1 | 55.42 | 2012,2014 |
| Shane Warne | Australia | RR | 55 | 30 | 24 | 1 | 55.45 | 2008 |
| Adam Gilchrist | Australia | Deccan Chargers, KXIP | 74 | 35 | 39 | 0 | 47.29 | 2009 |
| David Warner | Australia | SRH | 69 | 35 | 32 | 2 | 52.17 | 2016 |
