There have been as many as 50 captains in the history of the Indian T20 League and some really successful ones, including MS Dhoni of Chennai and Rohit Sharma of Mumbai I. But who are the most unsuccessful captains in the league? We filter out the captains who have led teams for at least 20 games to come up with the least successful ones.
Kumar Sangakkara
The veteran Sri Lankan wicket-keeper batsman skippered three Indian T20 League franchises - Team Deccan, Punjab and Hyderabad. In 47 matches as skipper across three seasons, Sangakkara could muster only 15 wins while his team went on to lose double the number of games. His win percentage of 34.04% is the lowest for any skipper who has led in at least 20 matches in the Indian T20 League.
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Mahela Jayawardene
Following closely on Sangakkara's heels is Sri Lanka’s 2011 World Cup final centurion, Mahela Jayawardene. The former Lankan skipper had a pathetic record as skipper in the Indian T20 League, winning just 10 of his 30 matches as skipper. Jayawardene led teams like Delhi, Kerala and Punjab during a three-year stint as captain.
Ajinkya Rahane
Ajinkya Rahane's credentials as a T20 batsman is quite questionable and so is his record as skipper. The Indian Test vice-captain has just nine wins in 25 games as the skipper of Rajasthan and as a back-up captain to Steven Smith for Pune. With a win percentage of just 36% Rahane fares among the worst captains in the league's history. It is no surprise that Rajasthan were eager to bring back Smith as skipper given Rahane's suspect record at the helm.
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Reduce the cut-off to just 10 matches and we have a slew of other names popping up in the list. This includes Kevin Pietersen, who led Delhi and Bangalore for just three wins in 17 matches (won percentage of 17.64%) as skipper. Aaron Finch with a win percentage of 20% in 10 matches as skipper comes close behind.
