Is India's captaincy a curse on IPL performance? A comparison of Rohit vs Kohli stats

India has emerged as the biggest superpower in cricket, both in terms of its performances and its ability to generate revenue. Given the appeal the Indian team has in cricket, there is a natural pressure on the players who play at the highest level for the team. For an Indian captain, the pressure is probably the highest it could get, whether in terms of decision-making or individual performances.

An Indian captain is bound to be in the limelight, as it is arguably the highest post for a player in cricket. Given how big the role is, there is a natural expectation of certain standards from their leadership and performances. Due to the immense pressure, there could be a case for the captains’ performances getting positively or negatively affected by the added responsibility.

How Rohit Sharma performed in IPL when he was full-time India captain

Rohit Sharma made his IPL debut in the very first season in 2008 and played for the Deccan Chargers till 2010. Since 2011, he has been with the Mumbai Indians (MI) with a roller-coaster of a journey. In his entire IPL career, Sharma has scored 7046 runs in 267 innings at an average of 29.73 and a strike rate of 132.10, including 2 hundreds and 47 fifty-plus scores.

Rohit led India in partial roles, such as during the 2018–19 period, where he won the Asia Cup and the Nidahas Trophy. However, his full-time reign as India’s captain began after the T20 World Cup 2021. In this period, he has been at his best with the bat at the highest level. Even in the IPL, he has delivered a couple of good seasons.

Rohit’s raw stats in IPL when he played for India as pure player and as captain

There might not be a lot to conclude from raw stats, as Rohit Sharma played 14 seasons in the IPL when he was not Team India's captain, while he played his last four seasons as the leader. When he was the Indian captain, Rohit played 59 innings in the IPL, compared to 201 otherwise. The difference between the two samples is huge, which does not provide any value to the stats. Hence, no conclusions can be made based on the raw stats from Rohit’s datasets.

Kohli’s raw stats in IPL when he played for India as pure player and as captain

Virat Kohli made his IPL debut in 2008 with the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and has been playing for them since then. The star batter has been one of the greatest IPL players over the 18 seasons. In 259 innings, he has a whopping 8661 runs at an average of 39.55 and a strike rate of 132.86, including 8 hundreds and 63 fifty-plus scores to his name.

Kohli became India’s full-time Test captain in 2015 and remained so till January 2022. He played for RCB from 2008 to 2014 and from 2022 to 2025, when he was not the Indian captain. Unlike Rohit, he has played a fairly larger number of IPL seasons when he was the Indian captain and provides a decent sample size both as a captain and as a pure player.

While there is a difference of a few seasons, it is evident that Virat’s stats only improved in the IPL when he became the Indian captain. It might also be due to the fact that he was at his prime when he was the Indian captain. For Kohli, captaincy indeed helped him to perform better. However, it is worth noting that Virat’s absolute best in the IPL has been in the period 2023–25, when he left the captaincy of both India and RCB. Hence, the Indian captaincy does not have a big role to play in the IPL performances of the individuals.

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