3 IPL Captains who never won a match

The Indian Premier League is the grandest T20 league on the planet with players from all over the world wishing to be a part of the tourney. Over the years, the IPL has produced a lot of new talents and also given a new life to the careers of veteran players. Besides playing in the IPL, the players also dream to lead an IPL team.

To captain an IPL franchise not only puts more spotlight on the individuals but it also gives them an opportunity to test their leadership skills. Players like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma have matured a lot as a captain because of the experience that they gained in the IPL.

But, as the wise men have said, “Every coin has two sides.” While there have been a lot of successful IPL captains in the last 12 years, there have been three players who could never steer their team to a single win.

Here’s a look at the three IPL captains who never won a match–

Parthiv Patel

Royal Challengers Bangalore’s wicket-keeper batsman, Parthiv Patel had captained the former IPL franchise, Kochi Tuskers Kerala in its last ever IPL match. The team’s regular captain, Mahela Jayawardene was unavailable and since Kochi had already been knocked out of the tournament, the team management handed the reigns to Parthiv ahead of Brad Hodge.

Patel made his captaincy debut against the defending champions Chennai Super Kings at Chepauk. The Tuskers had bowled really well in the first innings as they kept Chennai down to 153 runs in 20 overs. Chasing a modest total of 154 runs, Parthiv opened the innings for Kochi but lost his wicket for just 6 runs.

The trio of Ravichandran Ashwin, Suresh Raina and Shadab Jakati kept a check on the run flow as Kochi lost the match by 11 runs despite Hodge’s fifty. Though he has played for multiple franchises since 2011, Parthiv has never got a chance to lead a team.

James Hopes

Very few fans may remember that the former Australian all-rounder James Hopes had played the role of a skipper in the IPL. Just like Parthiv Patel, Hopes led his team Delhi Daredevils against Chennai Super Kings on his captaincy debut and co-incidentally, Delhi lost the match while batting second.

In the succeeding match, Delhi locked horns with the red-hot Kings XI Punjab in an away fixture. Since regular captain Virender Sehwag was out of the side, the team did not get off to a good start in the innings’ beginning. They could not down the Mohali-based franchise in that game as Punjab won the match by 29 runs.

Delhi Daredevils’ final fixture of their disastrous IPL 2011 campaign took place against the Pune Warriors India. Fans expected Delhi to win this game as Pune had been out of form in the tournament. But, the rainy weather in Delhi forced the two teams to share the points, leaving James Hopes without any win.

Dwayne Bravo

Another surprising name present on this list is of the Caribbean all-rounder, Dwayne Bravo. The Chennai Super Kings star has been the cornerstone of the MS Dhoni-led outfit in the IPL. However, before 2011, he used to be a part of the Mumbai Indians squad.

The right-handed batsman played three IPL seasons for Mumbai Indians from 2008 to 2010 and he had made his captaincy debut for the franchise in the year 2010. Regular skipper Sachin Tendulkar had missed that game at the Eden Gardens against Kolkata Knight Riders.

Hence, Bravo became the first West Indian player to lead an IPL side. Though it was a huge moment in his IPL career, Mumbai Indians could not win that match as Kolkata Knight Riders crushed them by 9 wickets. As he has not returned to captaincy ever since that night, he has a 0 per cent win record in the IPL.