New Captains of IPL 2018 | Since the IPL extravaganza is almost here, most teams are gearing up for the fight for the title. In the process teams are taking care of every aspect of the game be it unveiling the team jersey or announcing the captain to lead the side in the tournament.
This is year IPL will see a return to Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals after a 2-year ban for spot fixing and illegal betting. The teams have signed up 18 to 25 players during the grand auction held in January 2018, of which they must choose a player that will lead them towards the ultimate glory. While teams like Chennai Super Kings, Royal Challenger Bangalore, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Mumbai Indians chose to stick with their previous captains, teams like Kolkata Knight Riders, Delhi Daredevils and Kings XI Punjab chose a different captain to march forward. Let’s look at the new captains of these franchisees for IPL 2018.
Ravichandran Ashwin new captain of Kings XI Punjab
Kings XI Punjab: The team named Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin for the job of captaining their side. New Captains of IPL 2018 | The decision came as a surprise to many as the KXIP pool of players consists the likes of Yuvraj Singh, Chris Gayle, David Miller and KL Rahul. The player has been bought by the franchisee for Rs. 7.6 crore in the auction and he had played for CSK for about 7 years. The coach Virendra Sehwag spoke about his intentions of getting a bowler as captain as he was fascinated by the likes of Wasim Akram, Kapil Dev and Waqar Younis, after the announcement. Although he does have some first-class experience in captaining a side, but this will be the first time when R Ashwin will take up the captaincy job for any IPL team. In 2008, as a youngster, he was given reigns of Tamil Nadu State team and led the team in Vijay Hazare trophy and Gopalan Trophy in Sri Lanka.
He is a smart cricketer and reads the game very well. His former teammates remember him as the person who is always bursting with ideas. Although, this could become a cause for his downfall also, as we have seen it happened with Sachin Tendulkar. Also, the relationship that he bears with Sehwag would be a key to his success. He a man of books and method and on the other hand Sehwag is instinctive character, so it is to be seem if these 2 will compliment each other or not.
Dinesh Karthik captain of Kolkata Knight Riders
Kolkata Knight Riders: The franchise seems to be clueless about the plan that they have for IPL 2018. With a disastrous auction they were left with just 18 players in their team and no captain to lead them. Gautam Gambhir who led them for 7 years and to 2 titles was bought by Delhi Daredevils, leaving KKR to scout for new captain. With the limited choices they chose Dinesh Karthik to lead the team in IPL 2018. Karthik was bought for a price of Rs. 7.4 crore and has never captained an IPL side on permanent basis. He is not even a regular in Indian team, still team management have shown confidence in the player. He has been in IPL since its inception and was part of 5 different teams in 10 seasons. This team of current players could turn out to be a dark horse in IPL but then the role of Dinesh will be crucial in shaping the youngsters in the team. It seems like this confidence shown by the franchisee has reflected in Karthick as well when he single-handedly took India to victory against Bangladesh in recently concluded Nidhas trophy.
New Captains of IPL 2018 | The KKR team is a young team and the management is keen on building a team of future. They are not focusing only this IPL but many more to come it seems, and with the experience of Jacque Kallis and others they can for sure be the dark horse of 2018.
Gautam Gambhir new captain of Delhi Daredevils
Delhi Daredevils: The addition of 2-time IPL winner captain Gautam Gambhir in the team made the choice easy for the coach Ricky Ponting of Delhi Daredevils.
New Captains of IPL 2018 | Gambhir is a seasoned campaigner and had led KKR for 7 years to 2 IPL victories. He has also captained the state side of Delhi in domestic circuit and is known to groom youngsters under his captaincy. Similarly, the DD side also have the likes of promising youngsters in Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, Prithvi Shaw and Manjot Kalra. The management has shown confidence in the delhi lad and seems like Ganbhir is also keen to get down to business and do what he does best “Win”.
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