IPL 2018: Rating the captains of each side
Captaincy is one of the critical cogs in Twenty20 cricket as such is the fleeting nature of the game, that how and when the skipper responds defines the match in many ways.
Hence, for the upcoming season of the Indian Premier League, the fortunes of many franchises hinge on the respective captains and thus it becomes critical for these players to stand up and be noticed.
We take a look at the respective captains and rate them according to what we believe will be their impact on their teams.
Ravichandran Ashwin: 7/10
The newly appointed captain of Kings XI Punjab is a veteran as far as the IPL is concerned and after spending all his years under MS Dhoni, he has become not only an astute bowler, but also one of the better thinkers of the game in the country at the moment.
Ashwin's appointment came along expected lines as Punjab look to build their side from scratch and hence his contribution will be closely watched.
However, he still unproven at this stage and hence his rating stands at 7 out 10.
Dinesh Karthik: 7.5/10
Another Tamil Nadu man, Dinesh Karthik was appointed captain of the Kolkata Knight Riders.
This came as a surprise to many people around. However, on close observation, one finds that the wicket-keeper batsman has a decent record as a skipper for Tamil Nadu.
He led his state side to the Vijay Hazare Trophy back in 2009-10 and last year captained a winning campaign for India Red in Duleep Trophy.
However, the pressure of the IPL is a different commodity and he will play for KKR for the very first time and thus his rating reads 7.5 out of 10.