With IPL 2019 auction right around the corner, the excitement is scaling new heights. The franchises have started their preparations for the season by releasing and retaining players. The auction will not be one of those bigger ones but nonetheless will be crucial for all the franchises as some of them would be making modest changes to their squad while some others would be in the race to restructure the setup after a horrendous run in the previous season.

Besides a few structural changes, some franchises would also be looking forward to switching their captains ahead of the new season. The reason being the captain has a massive role to play in a team&#8217;s success especially in a tournament like the IPL. With matches going into the final overs more often than not, the captain and his decision making make a winning difference. A successful captain is one who can absorb the pressure without letting it radiate onto his team members, eventually extracting the most out of his players.

Be it CSK, MI or KKR, the benefits of appointing an experienced captain are quite apparent. Right from the advent of the league, there have been many instances when the experience of captain has come handy. Thus, let us look at three teams who could change their captains ahead of the upcoming edition of the IPL.

<a href="https://media.crictracker.com/media/attachments/2018/05/Ajinkya-Rahane.jpg"><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-247476" src="https://media.crictracker.com/media/attachments/Ajinkya-Rahane.jpg" alt="Ajinkya Rahane" width="640" height="400" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px"></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-247476" class="wp-caption-text">Ajinkya Rahane of Rajasthan Royals. (Photo by Surjeet Yadav/IANS)</figcaption>

Returning to the fray after serving a 2-year ban, the Royals decided to retain <a href="https://www.crictracker.com/ipl-2019-steve-smith-and-david-warner-will-not-be-available-for-the-entire-season/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Steve Smith</a> for IPL 2018. The Australian batsman was determined to captain them in the comeback season. However, the ball-tampering saga (March 2018) dwindled the hopes of Smith&#8217;s participation in the tournament as BCCI barred the Australian duo (Smith and Warner) from the 11th edition of IPL.

This very incident happened after the auction and thus Ajinkya Rahane was the captain for the season. Howbeit, Rajasthan Royals had a pretty decent run in the tournament under the tutelage of Rahane. They reached the playoffs only to be eliminated by KKR in the Eliminator.

<a href="https://media.crictracker.com/media/attachments/2018/01/Steve-Smith-RR.jpg"><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-206206" src="https://media.crictracker.com/media/attachments/Steve-Smith-RR.jpg" alt="Steve Smith RR" width="640" height="400" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px"></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-206206" class="wp-caption-text">Steve Smith of Rajasthan Royals. (Photo Source: Twitter)</figcaption>

Albeit, in the upcoming edition we could see a change in captaincy heads for the Royals. Steve Smith, who will be completing his one-year ban in March next year, is expected to take over the captaincy reins from Rahane for the 12th edition of IPL. Smith boasts an impressive captaincy record in the tournament. The Australian batsman has captained in 24 IPL games of which he has won 16 while losing 8 with an outstanding winning percentage of 66.67. Most of his wins (9) came for Rising Pune Supergiant in IPL 2017 where they reached the finals.

Moreover, captaincy hasn&#8217;t affected his batting as was the case in IPL 2017 where he smashed 472 runs at an astounding average of 39.33 and strike-rate just under 122. Meanwhile, Rahane hasn&#8217;t had an outstanding captaincy record in IPL. The Mumbaikar has captained in 16 IPL games with a winning percentage of 43.75. Besides that, captaincy has also taken a toll on Rahane&#8217;s batting &#8211; a case that was evident in IPL 2018 where he scored 370 runs at an average of 28.46 and a below-par strike-rate of 118.21.

Thus, throwing Smith back into the captaincy bubble will only strengthen the case for Royals as they will be equipped with an experienced leader while giving a sense of free air to Rahane to excel in the batting department.

<a href="https://media.crictracker.com/media/attachments/2018/04/Shreyas-Iyer-3.jpg"><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-245429" src="https://media.crictracker.com/media/attachments/Shreyas-Iyer-3.jpg" alt="Shreyas Iyer" width="640" height="400" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px"></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-245429" class="wp-caption-text">Delhi Daredevils&#8217; Shreyas Iyer. (Photo by Surjeet Yadav/IANS)</figcaption>

Delhi Daredevils&#8217; search for a captain begun at the IPL 2018 auction as they didn&#8217;t seem to have retained any potential captains for the 11th edition. Delhi&#8217;s quest for a captain ended the moment they signed <a href="https://www.crictracker.com/twitter-outraged-after-gautam-gambhir-was-released-by-delhi-daredevils/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gautam Gambhir</a> &#8211; the man behind KKR&#8217;s meteoric rise in this extravagant league. Daredevils looked good-to-go with an improved unit up against their sleeve.

Nonetheless, the things turned out to be the exact opposite for Delhi as they lost five of their first six encounters. The result didn&#8217;t go down very well with Gambhir as he decided to step down from the captaincy while dropping himself from the playing XI as well. As a result, <a href="https://www.crictracker.com/shreyas-iyer-hopeful-of-a-long-run-in-the-national-side/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Shreyas Iyer </a>was handed the captaincy duties for the rest of the tournament. Despite that, Delhi couldn&#8217;t turn their fortunes as they lost half of their remaining matches while ending as the bottom-ranked team in the league.

<a href="https://media.crictracker.com/media/attachments/2018/05/Shikhar-Dhawan-5.jpg"><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-253331" src="https://media.crictracker.com/media/attachments/Shikhar-Dhawan-5.jpg" alt="Shikhar Dhawan" width="640" height="400" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px"></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-253331" class="wp-caption-text">Sunrisers Hyderabad&#8217;s Shikhar Dhawan. (Photo by IANS)</figcaption>

Hence, come IPL 2019, Delhi Daredevils could pass the captaincy hat to Shikhar Dhawan who was recently traded to Daredevils in exchange for three players &#8211; Vijay Shankar, Shahbaz Nadeem, and Abhishek Sharma. Delhi Daredevils seem to have found the like for like replacement of Gambhir in Dhawan. Although Dhawan hasn&#8217;t had an exciting captaincy record in IPL, his experience will unquestionably come into play.

He captained the Hyderabad based franchise in 10 IPL games and won four of them. Though the record suggests a different story, we must acknowledge the fact that it was way back in 2014 when Dhawan assumed the role of a captain for Sunrisers Hyderabad. Since then, Dhawan has matured a lot, both as a cricketer and as an individual. In these four years, Shikhar has earned a lot of experience which makes him the favoured choice for the captaincy role in IPL 2019.

Shreyas Iyer hasn&#8217;t been a bad choice either, but he has lacked captaincy credentials to lead a side in a tournament as big as IPL. Besides that, taking the captaincy burden off Iyer&#8217;s shoulder would help the team management to make the most of Iyer-the batsman. Thus, it seems highly likely of Delhi Daredevils to appoint Shikhar Dhawan as the skipper for the upcoming edition of IPL.

<a href="https://media.crictracker.com/media/attachments/2018/05/Kane-Williamson-4.jpg"><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-253330" src="https://media.crictracker.com/media/attachments/Kane-Williamson-4.jpg" alt="Kane Williamson in the IPL" width="640" height="400" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px"></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-253330" class="wp-caption-text">Sunrisers Hyderabad&#8217;s Kane Williamson. (Photo by IANS)</figcaption>

Sunrisers Hyderabad has worked wonders under the captaincy of David Warner. Sunrisers clinched their first-ever and only IPL title under the leadership of Warner. Once again, with an impressive team combination, Hyderabad was set to rock the stage in the year 2018 as well. However, the sandpaper-gate turned the things ugly for them as BCCI banned Smith and Warner from IPL 2018. This decision of <a href="https://www.crictracker.com/bcci-conditionally-allows-mohammed-shami-to-play-ranji-game-for-bengal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BCCI</a> took a toll Sunrisers&#8217; team combination as they lost their most prominent player, more importantly, their captain.

Albeit, Sunrisers Hyderabad came out as a formidable side in IPL 2018 under the captaincy of Kane Williamson. Hyderabad started their 2018 tourney with three consecutive wins and eventually cruised to the finals where they lost to Chennai Super Kings. A lot of credit goes to Williamson for Hyderabad&#8217;s success at IPL 2018.

<a href="https://media.crictracker.com/media/attachments/2018/04/David-Warner-SRH.jpg"><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-237085" src="https://media.crictracker.com/media/attachments/David-Warner-SRH.jpg" alt="David Warner" width="640" height="400" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px"></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-237085" class="wp-caption-text">David Warner of SRH. (Photo Source: Twitter)</figcaption>

Despite Williamson&#8217;s terrific run in IPL 2018, we could witness David Warner taking over the captaincy duties from Kane Williamson for the upcoming edition of IPL. The Australian left-handed batsman has had an overwhelming captaincy record in IPL. Having captained in 47 IPL games, Warner boasts a winning percentage of 55.31 &#8211; 26 wins and 21 losses. In addition to that, captaincy has brought the best out of him. His batting statistics as an SRH captain are just outstanding. As a captain, he has amassed 2051 IPL runs at an astounding average of 45.58 and a high strike-rate of 152.60.

Moreover, as compared to Williamson, Warner has been quite equable in the crunch situations. Be it IPL 2016 Final or IPL 2016 Qualifier 2, he has been utterly brilliant in handling the zero hour situations. Thus, come the 12th edition of the league, SRH could return to David Warner for the leadership role.

~ Written by Vaibhav Joshi

Get the latest Cricket News and updates from Indian Premier League<a href="https://www.crictracker.com/tag/indvwi">,</a> <a href="https://www.crictracker.com/cricket-match-predictions/">Match Predictions</a>, <a href="https://www.crictracker.com/fantasy-cricket-tips/">Fantasy Cricket Tips </a>and lots more on <a href="https://www.crictracker.com/">CricTracker.com</a>.

David Warner and Steve Smith Rising Pune Supergiant

With IPL 2019 auction right around the corner, the excitement is scaling new heights. The franchises have started their preparations for the season by releasing and retaining players. The auction will not be one of those bigger ones but nonetheless will be crucial for all the franchises as some of them would be making modest changes to their squad while some others would be in the race to restructure the setup after a horrendous run in the previous season.
Besides a few structural changes, some franchises would also be looking forward to switching their captains ahead of the new season. The reason being the captain has a massive role to play in a team’s success especially in a tournament like the IPL. With matches going into the final overs more often than not, the captain and his decision making make a winning difference. A successful captain is one who can absorb the pressure without letting it radiate onto his team members, eventually extracting the most out of his players.
Be it CSK, MI or KKR, the benefits of appointing an experienced captain are quite apparent. Right from the advent of the league, there have been many instances when the experience of captain has come handy. Thus, let us look at three teams who could change their captains ahead of the upcoming edition of the IPL.
<h3>1. Rajasthan Royals</h3>
<figure id="attachment_247476" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-247476" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="max-width: 100%; margin: 0;"><a href="https://media.crictracker.com/media/attachments/2018/05/Ajinkya-Rahane.jpg"><amp-img class="size-full wp-image-247476" src="https://media.crictracker.com/media/attachments/Ajinkya-Rahane.jpg" alt="Ajinkya Rahane" width="640" height="400" layout="responsive" style="max-width: 100%; margin: 0;"></amp-img></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-247476" class="wp-caption-text">Ajinkya Rahane of Rajasthan Royals. (Photo by Surjeet Yadav/IANS)</figcaption></figure>
Returning to the fray after serving a 2-year ban, the Royals decided to retain <a href="https://www.crictracker.com/ipl-2019-steve-smith-and-david-warner-will-not-be-available-for-the-entire-season/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Steve Smith</a> for IPL 2018. The Australian batsman was determined to captain them in the comeback season. However, the ball-tampering saga (March 2018) dwindled the hopes of Smith’s participation in the tournament as BCCI barred the Australian duo (Smith and Warner) from the 11th edition of IPL.
This very incident happened after the auction and thus Ajinkya Rahane was the captain for the season. Howbeit, Rajasthan Royals had a pretty decent run in the tournament under the tutelage of Rahane. They reached the playoffs only to be eliminated by KKR in the Eliminator.
<figure id="attachment_206206" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-206206" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="max-width: 100%; margin: 0;"><a href="https://media.crictracker.com/media/attachments/2018/01/Steve-Smith-RR.jpg"><amp-img class="size-full wp-image-206206" src="https://media.crictracker.com/media/attachments/Steve-Smith-RR.jpg" alt="Steve Smith RR" width="640" height="400" layout="responsive" style="max-width: 100%; margin: 0;"></amp-img></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-206206" class="wp-caption-text">Steve Smith of Rajasthan Royals. (Photo Source: Twitter)</figcaption></figure>
Albeit, in the upcoming edition we could see a change in captaincy heads for the Royals. Steve Smith, who will be completing his one-year ban in March next year, is expected to take over the captaincy reins from Rahane for the 12th edition of IPL. Smith boasts an impressive captaincy record in the tournament. The Australian batsman has captained in 24 IPL games of which he has won 16 while losing 8 with an outstanding winning percentage of 66.67. Most of his wins (9) came for Rising Pune Supergiant in IPL 2017 where they reached the finals.
Moreover, captaincy hasn’t affected his batting as was the case in IPL 2017 where he smashed 472 runs at an astounding average of 39.33 and strike-rate just under 122. Meanwhile, Rahane hasn’t had an outstanding captaincy record in IPL. The Mumbaikar has captained in 16 IPL games with a winning percentage of 43.75. Besides that, captaincy has also taken a toll on Rahane’s batting – a case that was evident in IPL 2018 where he scored 370 runs at an average of 28.46 and a below-par strike-rate of 118.21.
Thus, throwing Smith back into the captaincy bubble will only strengthen the case for Royals as they will be equipped with an experienced leader while giving a sense of free air to Rahane to excel in the batting department.
<h3>2. Delhi Daredevils</h3>
<figure id="attachment_245429" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245429" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="max-width: 100%; margin: 0;"><a href="https://media.crictracker.com/media/attachments/2018/04/Shreyas-Iyer-3.jpg"><amp-img class="size-full wp-image-245429" src="https://media.crictracker.com/media/attachments/Shreyas-Iyer-3.jpg" alt="Shreyas Iyer" width="640" height="400" layout="responsive" style="max-width: 100%; margin: 0;"></amp-img></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-245429" class="wp-caption-text">Delhi Daredevils’ Shreyas Iyer. (Photo by Surjeet Yadav/IANS)</figcaption></figure>
Delhi Daredevils’ search for a captain begun at the IPL 2018 auction as they didn’t seem to have retained any potential captains for the 11th edition. Delhi’s quest for a captain ended the moment they signed <a href="https://www.crictracker.com/twitter-outraged-after-gautam-gambhir-was-released-by-delhi-daredevils/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gautam Gambhir</a> – the man behind KKR’s meteoric rise in this extravagant league. Daredevils looked good-to-go with an improved unit up against their sleeve.
Nonetheless, the things turned out to be the exact opposite for Delhi as they lost five of their first six encounters. The result didn’t go down very well with Gambhir as he decided to step down from the captaincy while dropping himself from the playing XI as well. As a result, <a href="https://www.crictracker.com/shreyas-iyer-hopeful-of-a-long-run-in-the-national-side/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Shreyas Iyer </a>was handed the captaincy duties for the rest of the tournament. Despite that, Delhi couldn’t turn their fortunes as they lost half of their remaining matches while ending as the bottom-ranked team in the league.
<figure id="attachment_253331" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-253331" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="max-width: 100%; margin: 0;"><a href="https://media.crictracker.com/media/attachments/2018/05/Shikhar-Dhawan-5.jpg"><amp-img class="size-full wp-image-253331" src="https://media.crictracker.com/media/attachments/Shikhar-Dhawan-5.jpg" alt="Shikhar Dhawan" width="640" height="400" layout="responsive" style="max-width: 100%; margin: 0;"></amp-img></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-253331" class="wp-caption-text">Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Shikhar Dhawan. (Photo by IANS)</figcaption></figure>
Hence, come IPL 2019, Delhi Daredevils could pass the captaincy hat to Shikhar Dhawan who was recently traded to Daredevils in exchange for three players – Vijay Shankar, Shahbaz Nadeem, and Abhishek Sharma. Delhi Daredevils seem to have found the like for like replacement of Gambhir in Dhawan. Although Dhawan hasn’t had an exciting captaincy record in IPL, his experience will unquestionably come into play.
He captained the Hyderabad based franchise in 10 IPL games and won four of them. Though the record suggests a different story, we must acknowledge the fact that it was way back in 2014 when Dhawan assumed the role of a captain for Sunrisers Hyderabad. Since then, Dhawan has matured a lot, both as a cricketer and as an individual. In these four years, Shikhar has earned a lot of experience which makes him the favoured choice for the captaincy role in IPL 2019.
Shreyas Iyer hasn’t been a bad choice either, but he has lacked captaincy credentials to lead a side in a tournament as big as IPL. Besides that, taking the captaincy burden off Iyer’s shoulder would help the team management to make the most of Iyer-the batsman. Thus, it seems highly likely of Delhi Daredevils to appoint Shikhar Dhawan as the skipper for the upcoming edition of IPL.
<h3>3. Sunrisers Hyderabad</h3>
<figure id="attachment_253330" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-253330" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="max-width: 100%; margin: 0;"><a href="https://media.crictracker.com/media/attachments/2018/05/Kane-Williamson-4.jpg"><amp-img class="size-full wp-image-253330" src="https://media.crictracker.com/media/attachments/Kane-Williamson-4.jpg" alt="Kane Williamson in the IPL" width="640" height="400" layout="responsive" style="max-width: 100%; margin: 0;"></amp-img></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-253330" class="wp-caption-text">Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Kane Williamson. (Photo by IANS)</figcaption></figure>
Sunrisers Hyderabad has worked wonders under the captaincy of David Warner. Sunrisers clinched their first-ever and only IPL title under the leadership of Warner. Once again, with an impressive team combination, Hyderabad was set to rock the stage in the year 2018 as well. However, the sandpaper-gate turned the things ugly for them as BCCI banned Smith and Warner from IPL 2018. This decision of <a href="https://www.crictracker.com/bcci-conditionally-allows-mohammed-shami-to-play-ranji-game-for-bengal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BCCI</a> took a toll Sunrisers’ team combination as they lost their most prominent player, more importantly, their captain.
Albeit, Sunrisers Hyderabad came out as a formidable side in IPL 2018 under the captaincy of Kane Williamson. Hyderabad started their 2018 tourney with three consecutive wins and eventually cruised to the finals where they lost to Chennai Super Kings. A lot of credit goes to Williamson for Hyderabad’s success at IPL 2018.
<figure id="attachment_237085" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-237085" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="max-width: 100%; margin: 0;"><a href="https://media.crictracker.com/media/attachments/2018/04/David-Warner-SRH.jpg"><amp-img class="size-full wp-image-237085" src="https://media.crictracker.com/media/attachments/David-Warner-SRH.jpg" alt="David Warner" width="640" height="400" layout="responsive" style="max-width: 100%; margin: 0;"></amp-img></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-237085" class="wp-caption-text">David Warner of SRH. (Photo Source: Twitter)</figcaption></figure>
Despite Williamson’s terrific run in IPL 2018, we could witness David Warner taking over the captaincy duties from Kane Williamson for the upcoming edition of IPL. The Australian left-handed batsman has had an overwhelming captaincy record in IPL. Having captained in 47 IPL games, Warner boasts a winning percentage of 55.31 – 26 wins and 21 losses. In addition to that, captaincy has brought the best out of him. His batting statistics as an SRH captain are just outstanding. As a captain, he has amassed 2051 IPL runs at an astounding average of 45.58 and a high strike-rate of 152.60.
Moreover, as compared to Williamson, Warner has been quite equable in the crunch situations. Be it IPL 2016 Final or IPL 2016 Qualifier 2, he has been utterly brilliant in handling the zero hour situations. Thus, come the 12th edition of the league, SRH could return to David Warner for the leadership role.
~ Written by Vaibhav Joshi
<h4 class="p1">Get the latest&nbsp;Cricket News&nbsp;and updates from&nbsp;Indian Premier League<a href="https://www.crictracker.com/tag/indvwi">,</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.crictracker.com/cricket-match-predictions/">Match Predictions</a>, <a href="https://www.crictracker.com/fantasy-cricket-tips/">Fantasy Cricket Tips </a>and lots more on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.crictracker.com/">CricTracker.com</a>.</h4>

With IPL 2019 auction right around the corner, the excitement is scaling new heights. The franchises have started their preparations for the season by releasing and retaining players. The auction will not be one of those bigger ones but nonetheless will be crucial for all the franchises as some of them would be making modest changes to their squad while some others would be in the race to restructure the setup after a horrendous run in the previous season.
Besides a few structural changes, some franchises would also be looking forward to switching their captains ahead of the new season. The reason being the captain has a massive role to play in a team&#8217;s success especially in a tournament like the IPL. With matches going into the final overs more often than not, the captain and his decision making make a winning difference. A successful captain is one who can absorb the pressure without letting it radiate onto his team members, eventually extracting the most out of his players.
Be it CSK, MI or KKR, the benefits of appointing an experienced captain are quite apparent. Right from the advent of the league, there have been many instances when the experience of captain has come handy. Thus, let us look at three teams who could change their captains ahead of the upcoming edition of the IPL.
<h3>1. Rajasthan Royals</h3>
<figure id="attachment_247476" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-247476" style="width: 640px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://media.crictracker.com/media/attachments/2018/05/Ajinkya-Rahane.jpg"><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-247476" src="https://media.crictracker.com/media/attachments/Ajinkya-Rahane.jpg" alt="Ajinkya Rahane" width="640" height="400" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px"></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-247476" class="wp-caption-text">Ajinkya Rahane of Rajasthan Royals. (Photo by Surjeet Yadav/IANS)</figcaption></figure>
Returning to the fray after serving a 2-year ban, the Royals decided to retain <a href="https://www.crictracker.com/ipl-2019-steve-smith-and-david-warner-will-not-be-available-for-the-entire-season/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Steve Smith</a> for IPL 2018. The Australian batsman was determined to captain them in the comeback season. However, the ball-tampering saga (March 2018) dwindled the hopes of Smith&#8217;s participation in the tournament as BCCI barred the Australian duo (Smith and Warner) from the 11th edition of IPL.
This very incident happened after the auction and thus Ajinkya Rahane was the captain for the season. Howbeit, Rajasthan Royals had a pretty decent run in the tournament under the tutelage of Rahane. They reached the playoffs only to be eliminated by KKR in the Eliminator.
<figure id="attachment_206206" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-206206" style="width: 640px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://media.crictracker.com/media/attachments/2018/01/Steve-Smith-RR.jpg"><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-206206" src="https://media.crictracker.com/media/attachments/Steve-Smith-RR.jpg" alt="Steve Smith RR" width="640" height="400" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px"></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-206206" class="wp-caption-text">Steve Smith of Rajasthan Royals. (Photo Source: Twitter)</figcaption></figure>
Albeit, in the upcoming edition we could see a change in captaincy heads for the Royals. Steve Smith, who will be completing his one-year ban in March next year, is expected to take over the captaincy reins from Rahane for the 12th edition of IPL. Smith boasts an impressive captaincy record in the tournament. The Australian batsman has captained in 24 IPL games of which he has won 16 while losing 8 with an outstanding winning percentage of 66.67. Most of his wins (9) came for Rising Pune Supergiant in IPL 2017 where they reached the finals.
Moreover, captaincy hasn&#8217;t affected his batting as was the case in IPL 2017 where he smashed 472 runs at an astounding average of 39.33 and strike-rate just under 122. Meanwhile, Rahane hasn&#8217;t had an outstanding captaincy record in IPL. The Mumbaikar has captained in 16 IPL games with a winning percentage of 43.75. Besides that, captaincy has also taken a toll on Rahane&#8217;s batting &#8211; a case that was evident in IPL 2018 where he scored 370 runs at an average of 28.46 and a below-par strike-rate of 118.21.
Thus, throwing Smith back into the captaincy bubble will only strengthen the case for Royals as they will be equipped with an experienced leader while giving a sense of free air to Rahane to excel in the batting department.
<h3>2. Delhi Daredevils</h3>
<figure id="attachment_245429" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-245429" style="width: 640px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://media.crictracker.com/media/attachments/2018/04/Shreyas-Iyer-3.jpg"><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-245429" src="https://media.crictracker.com/media/attachments/Shreyas-Iyer-3.jpg" alt="Shreyas Iyer" width="640" height="400" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px"></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-245429" class="wp-caption-text">Delhi Daredevils&#8217; Shreyas Iyer. (Photo by Surjeet Yadav/IANS)</figcaption></figure>
Delhi Daredevils&#8217; search for a captain begun at the IPL 2018 auction as they didn&#8217;t seem to have retained any potential captains for the 11th edition. Delhi&#8217;s quest for a captain ended the moment they signed <a href="https://www.crictracker.com/twitter-outraged-after-gautam-gambhir-was-released-by-delhi-daredevils/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gautam Gambhir</a> &#8211; the man behind KKR&#8217;s meteoric rise in this extravagant league. Daredevils looked good-to-go with an improved unit up against their sleeve.
Nonetheless, the things turned out to be the exact opposite for Delhi as they lost five of their first six encounters. The result didn&#8217;t go down very well with Gambhir as he decided to step down from the captaincy while dropping himself from the playing XI as well. As a result, <a href="https://www.crictracker.com/shreyas-iyer-hopeful-of-a-long-run-in-the-national-side/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Shreyas Iyer </a>was handed the captaincy duties for the rest of the tournament. Despite that, Delhi couldn&#8217;t turn their fortunes as they lost half of their remaining matches while ending as the bottom-ranked team in the league.
<figure id="attachment_253331" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-253331" style="width: 640px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://media.crictracker.com/media/attachments/2018/05/Shikhar-Dhawan-5.jpg"><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-253331" src="https://media.crictracker.com/media/attachments/Shikhar-Dhawan-5.jpg" alt="Shikhar Dhawan" width="640" height="400" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px"></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-253331" class="wp-caption-text">Sunrisers Hyderabad&#8217;s Shikhar Dhawan. (Photo by IANS)</figcaption></figure>
Hence, come IPL 2019, Delhi Daredevils could pass the captaincy hat to Shikhar Dhawan who was recently traded to Daredevils in exchange for three players &#8211; Vijay Shankar, Shahbaz Nadeem, and Abhishek Sharma. Delhi Daredevils seem to have found the like for like replacement of Gambhir in Dhawan. Although Dhawan hasn&#8217;t had an exciting captaincy record in IPL, his experience will unquestionably come into play.
He captained the Hyderabad based franchise in 10 IPL games and won four of them. Though the record suggests a different story, we must acknowledge the fact that it was way back in 2014 when Dhawan assumed the role of a captain for Sunrisers Hyderabad. Since then, Dhawan has matured a lot, both as a cricketer and as an individual. In these four years, Shikhar has earned a lot of experience which makes him the favoured choice for the captaincy role in IPL 2019.
Shreyas Iyer hasn&#8217;t been a bad choice either, but he has lacked captaincy credentials to lead a side in a tournament as big as IPL. Besides that, taking the captaincy burden off Iyer&#8217;s shoulder would help the team management to make the most of Iyer-the batsman. Thus, it seems highly likely of Delhi Daredevils to appoint Shikhar Dhawan as the skipper for the upcoming edition of IPL.
<h3>3. Sunrisers Hyderabad</h3>
<figure id="attachment_253330" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-253330" style="width: 640px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://media.crictracker.com/media/attachments/2018/05/Kane-Williamson-4.jpg"><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-253330" src="https://media.crictracker.com/media/attachments/Kane-Williamson-4.jpg" alt="Kane Williamson in the IPL" width="640" height="400" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px"></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-253330" class="wp-caption-text">Sunrisers Hyderabad&#8217;s Kane Williamson. (Photo by IANS)</figcaption></figure>
Sunrisers Hyderabad has worked wonders under the captaincy of David Warner. Sunrisers clinched their first-ever and only IPL title under the leadership of Warner. Once again, with an impressive team combination, Hyderabad was set to rock the stage in the year 2018 as well. However, the sandpaper-gate turned the things ugly for them as BCCI banned Smith and Warner from IPL 2018. This decision of <a href="https://www.crictracker.com/bcci-conditionally-allows-mohammed-shami-to-play-ranji-game-for-bengal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BCCI</a> took a toll Sunrisers&#8217; team combination as they lost their most prominent player, more importantly, their captain.
Albeit, Sunrisers Hyderabad came out as a formidable side in IPL 2018 under the captaincy of Kane Williamson. Hyderabad started their 2018 tourney with three consecutive wins and eventually cruised to the finals where they lost to Chennai Super Kings. A lot of credit goes to Williamson for Hyderabad&#8217;s success at IPL 2018.
<figure id="attachment_237085" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-237085" style="width: 640px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://media.crictracker.com/media/attachments/2018/04/David-Warner-SRH.jpg"><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-237085" src="https://media.crictracker.com/media/attachments/David-Warner-SRH.jpg" alt="David Warner" width="640" height="400" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px"></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-237085" class="wp-caption-text">David Warner of SRH. (Photo Source: Twitter)</figcaption></figure>
Despite Williamson&#8217;s terrific run in IPL 2018, we could witness David Warner taking over the captaincy duties from Kane Williamson for the upcoming edition of IPL. The Australian left-handed batsman has had an overwhelming captaincy record in IPL. Having captained in 47 IPL games, Warner boasts a winning percentage of 55.31 &#8211; 26 wins and 21 losses. In addition to that, captaincy has brought the best out of him. His batting statistics as an SRH captain are just outstanding. As a captain, he has amassed 2051 IPL runs at an astounding average of 45.58 and a high strike-rate of 152.60.
Moreover, as compared to Williamson, Warner has been quite equable in the crunch situations. Be it IPL 2016 Final or IPL 2016 Qualifier 2, he has been utterly brilliant in handling the zero hour situations. Thus, come the 12th edition of the league, SRH could return to David Warner for the leadership role.
~ Written by Vaibhav Joshi
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Right from the advent of the league, there have been many instances when the experience of captain has come handy thus these teams needs to change their leaders to bring about a change in their fortunes.

IPL 2019: 3 Teams that could change their captains

With IPL 2019 auction right around the corner, the excitement is scaling new heights. The franchises have started their preparations for the season by releasing

IPL 2019: 3 Teams that could change their captains

Right from the advent of the league, there have been many instances when the experience of captain has come handy thus these teams needs to change their leaders to bring about a change in their fortunes.

3. Sunrisers Hyderabad

Get the latest Cricket News and updates from Indian Premier League, Match Predictions, Fantasy Cricket Tips and lots more on CricTracker.com.