IPL 2018: 5 new captains in the 11th season
IPL's season 11 could be the most exciting yet with the return of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals after their two-year suspension. There are also a bunch of new things that are enhancing this IPL - the Decision Review System (DRS), Star Sports as broadcasters, broadcast of the player retention event, and of course, new captains.
After 10 years of the IPL, the league saw a massive overhaul, mainly due to the removal of the temporary teams - Rising Pune Supergiant and Gujarat Lions - who had taken the spot of the suspended teams. Most of the players too were shuffled - CSK's prime player R Ashwin was bought by Punjab, RCB's pride Chris Gayle was not retained and then, sold to Punjab again in the auctions, MI's Jos Buttler joined Rajasthan Royals, and KKR's favourite face Manish Pandey moved to the Sunrisers Hyderabad.
It didn't stop there. Mumbai Indians, known for their star-studded coaching team, let go of Ricky Ponting, and the Australian legend then joined the Daredevils.
With so many players finding new homes, appointing new captains was inevitable. Thus, this IPL season sees 5 new captains:
#1 Gautam Gambhir
Team - Delhi Daredevils
The 36-year-old Indian opener is not a new face in captaincy. He led his former team, the Kolkata Knight Riders, for 6 years. Under his captaincy, KKR made it to 4 playoffs and won the title twice, in 2012 against CSK and in 2014 against KXIP.
KKR's CEO, Venky Mysore, revealed that the player had asked the team to not retain him as he wished to end his IPL career where he had started it. The Arjuna Awardee was signed by the Delhi Daredevils for 2.8 crores and was named their skipper. With Ricky Ponting as their coach, the combination of Gambhir and Punter's beaming aggression could make Delhi a force to reckon with.