Gambhir joins Dhoni in captains’ milestone club

Gautam Gambhir recently became the second player to cross the 100-match mark as captain in the IPL. The 34-year-old Delhi left hander has been captain in 102 matches so far; 87 for Kolkata Knight Riders and 15 for Delhi Daredevils.

As captain, Dhoni has scored 3,198 runs of 2,300 balls (strike rate of 139.04) at an average of 38.53, while Gambhir has scored 2,832 runs of 2,302 balls (strike rate of 123.02) at an average of 31.12.

Gautam Gambhir recently became the second player to cross the 100-match mark as captain in the IPL. The 34-year-old Delhi left hander has been captain in 102 matches so far; 87 for Kolkata Knight Riders and 15 for Delhi Daredevils. The first of course is Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who has to date led in 140 matches; 129 for CSK and 11 for Rising Pune Supergiants. As captain, Dhoni has scored 3,198 runs of 2,300 balls (strike rate of 139.04) at an average of 38.53, while Gambhir has scored 2,832 runs of 2,302 balls (strike rate of 123.02) at an average of 31.12.

Dhoni has won 81 matches (78 for CSK and 3 for the Supergiants) and Gambhir has won 59 matches (50 for KKR and 9 for Delhi Daredevils). Moving to Supergiants, Dhoni’s winning percentage has dipped (8 losses) to 57.86 per cent (from 60.47 before the start of IPL-9) and Gambhir is just fractionally behind him at 57.84 (57.61 before the start of IPL-9), having won six of the ten matches so far. Clearly the non-availability of Kevin Pietersen, Faf du Plessis, Steve Smith and Mitchell Marsh, due to injuries, has hurt the Supergiants.

Taking into account a minimum of 50 matches as captain (and matched played up to May 11), Mumbai Indians’ Rohit Sharma has a superior winning percentage of 60; he has led only in 55 matches (33 wins). Sachin Tendulkar (Mumbai Indians) finished with a winning percentage of 58.82 (30 out of 51), Shane Warne (Rajasthan Royals) finished at 56.36 (31 out of 55), Virender Sehwag finished at 54.72 (29 out of 53; 28 for DD and 1 for KXIP) and Adam Gilchrist finished at 47.30 (35 out of 74; 18 for DC, 17 for KXIP). RCB’s Virat Kohli has led in 66 matches, won 32, for a winning percentage of 48.48.

Ignoring the 50-match criteria, others who have a 50 per cent winning record are RCB’s Anil Kumble (26 matches, 15 wins, 57.69), Mumbai Indians’ Shaun Pollock (4 matches, 3 wins, 75), Gujarat Lions’ Suresh Raina (14 matches, 8 wins, 57.14), Steve Smith (9 matches, 6 wins for RR, 66.67), Ross Taylor (1 match, 1 win for Pune Warriors, 100), Cameron White (12 matches, 7 wins (2 for DC and 5 for Sunrisers), 58.33) and Delhi Daredevils’ Zaheer Khan (8 matches, 5 wins, 62.50).