5 IPL captains who were released by their franchise before an auction
MS Dhoni's Indian Premier League (IPL) career with the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) continues well beyond his all-format retirement, despite his age and an apparent decline with the bat. His retention points to a key attribute - captaincy. While certain franchises plug in successful international captains - Brendon McCullum, David Warner, Eoin Morgan and Kumar Sangakkara come to mind - others have home-grown Indian stars into that role before their calling at the highest level.
The notable aspect that differentiates franchises is their response after a poor season. While the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) have unwaveringly backed Virat Kohli despite the worst win-loss ratio for anyone who has captained in more than 50 games, historically struggling teams such as Delhi Capitals (DC) and Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) have often chopped and changed their captain after poor campaigns. At the other end of the spectrum are the Kolkata Knight Riders who have made big captaincy changes seemingly out of nowhere.
While the shuffling of captaincy within ranks is more common, the release of a captain from a squad before the auction signifies a major rethink on part of the franchise. Here are five instances when a captain was released after at least a full season at the helm.
#5 George Bailey (IPL 2014-2015: KXIP)
One of the stories of the Kings XI Punjab's revival from the abyss to top the points table in 2014 was the influence of new skipper George Bailey, an experienced captain at the domestic level in Australia and someone who led Australia internationally right from his T20 debut for a brief period. With a power-packed batting side, KXIP thrived under Bailey and then head coach Sanjay Bangar.
Right after their fairytale finals run in 2014, the team had a poor run in 2015 with Bailey still at the helm. In a major overhaul, Bailey was released by KXIP before the 2016 IPL auction, where he went unsold before being signed by the Rising Pune Supergiant as a replacement player. KXIP's luck did not improve after the release, nor did Bailey have an IPL career to speak of from that point on.
#4 Glenn Maxwell (IPL 2017: KXIP)
KXIP have tried everything possible to get Glenn Maxwell to return to his form from the first half of IPL 2014 - where he scored colossal and destructive innings at will to help the team overhaul huge targets. Since that season, it has been a story of KXIP hoping that Maxwell fires, with the long rope even resulting in captaincy for the Victoria all-rounder in IPL 2017.
A season of 7 wins and the same number of losses meant KXIP could not qualify for the playoffs, and Maxwell finished with a 50% win-loss record. The franchise finally cut the cord in 2017 and released Maxwell, only for Delhi Capitals to make a massive investment in him during the auctions. KXIP and Maxwell have both continued to flounder in the IPL since then.