This IPL 2023 has been quite the eventful edition, with a number of players from various stages in their careers standing out with their performances. Captains like Shikhar Dhawan, Nitish Rana, Faf du Plessis and Aiden Markram have been particularly impressive thus far. But here, we’ll be taking a look at three captains who are unfortunately making their teams worse in this edition of the IPL:
1) David Warner
One of the all-time greats in IPL history, Captain David Warner has scored over 6000 runs in the competition and shown incredible consistency and scoring rate. This season, he has scored 228 runs in five matches, making him fourth in the race for the Orange Cap. However, his strike rate of only 116.92 means that although he is scoring big runs, he isn’t able to do it at a quick rate. This lack of speed has likely affected the Delhi Capitals’ batting lineup performance overall.
2) Hardik Pandya
Hardik Pandya was a key player in the Gujarat Titans’ victory last season, scoring 487 runs with an average of 44 and a strike rate of 131. He also proved invaluable in taking eight wickets at an economy rate of 7.28. Although his strike rate fell, he still adjusted and put forth good performances to match the situation. Unfortunately, the captain has not had much luck in IPL 2023 so far, only scoring 49 runs in four innings and taking one wicket in 10 overs. Since the Asia Cup, his T20 batting form has been somewhat inconsistent, with only a few noteworthy performances.
3) KL Rahul
KL Rahul has been a prolific batsman in the IPL but has faced much scrutiny for his sluggish batting in the past three years. He entered IPL 2023 after an underwhelming performance at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup last year, which resulted in him not playing for the national team in the T20 format. This season, in five innings, Rahul has scored 155 runs at an average of 31 and a strike rate of 113 – the lowest for any batter with more than 100 runs.
