MS Dhoni declared best IPL captain by a jury of 50 members

The 13th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) hasn’t commenced as plan on March 29. The ongoing pandemic has led to the BCCI postponing the season until further notice. However, even during the lockdown, the IPL fever hasn’t died as a 50-member jury comprising of 20 former cricketers among them have chosen MS Dhoni as the best captains of the T20 extravaganza.

He pipped Rohit Sharma who has led Mumbai Indians (MI) to the IPL title four times. CSK have made it to the playoff/knockouts in every season they’ve played and have won it thrice. Both the players have led the team impeccably well but the fact that CSK did well under Dhoni consistently has led to the jury picking him as the best.

Moreover, the Royal Challengers Bangalore’s (RCB) AB de Villiers was picked as the greatest all-time batsman in the IPL while Sri Lanka and MI’s veteran bowler Lasith Malinga won the top honour in the bowlers’ category. Malinga is also the highest wicket-taker in the history of the league with 170 wickets to his name at an average of 19.80.

Virat Kohli named the Greatest Indian Batsman in the IPL

The Indian skipper Virat Kohli who also leads the RCB was chosen as the greatest Indian batsman ever in the cash-rich league by the Star Sports’ jury on the show Cricket Connected. He has scored the most number of runs in the history of the IPL amassing 5412 runs in 177 matches at an average of 37.85 with as many as five centuries out of which four came in 2016 season.

Meanwhile, the former Australia cricketer Shane Watson has walked away with the top honour in the all-rounders’ category. He is currently with the CSK but didn’t bowl in the last season. Even then he has picked 92 wickets in 105 innings apart from scoring 3575 runs at a strike-rate of almost 140 along with four scores of more than 100. CSK’s Stephen Fleming was unanimously as the best coach in the IPL. He has been the only one to coach a franchise constantly for a long time.

Apart from 20 former cricketers, the jury comprised 10 senior sports journalists, 10 statisticians and the same number of anaylsts.