The IPL captaincy merry-go-round

In 2011, Delhi Daredevils lost Virender Sehwag to a shoulder injury that ruled him out of the tournament. With Gautam Gambhir moving to Kolkata Knight Riders before that season and Ajit Agarkar not in the best form, Daredevils were short of senior players to lead them. Hopes had put together a string of valuable all-round performances in what was a woeful season for Daredevils and had experience captaining Queensland in domestic cricket. He was asked to lead them for the last three league games of the season. Daredevils did not fare any better under Hopes, losing two of the three game, eventually finishing last in the league table.

Parthiv Patel has represented six IPL franchises over the years, but his sole game as captain came for Kochi Tuskers Kerala, after they were out of contention for the playoffs. In a side featuring Brendon McCullum, Brad Hodge and Muttiah Muralitharan, Parthiv was a surprising choice. Kochi lost the game to a rampant Chennai Super Kings line-up, who successfully defended 152 on their home turf.

Finch was not even part of the Pune Warriors squad at the beginning of the 2013 season and only joined them after Michael Clarke was ruled out of the season with an injury. While he had captained Melbourne Renegades in the BBL, he had not cemented his place in an IPL franchise yet, leaving him unsold ahead of the 2013 season. He played under Angelo Mathews and Ross Taylor during the first six games, before each of them lost their places due to poor form. Finch had already led Warriors in four games when Mathews formally tendered his resignation as captain. It was a forgettable season for the franchise, who finished second-last in the points table.

Long before he was bought for a whopping INR 12 crore by Daredevils in 2013, and formally announced as their vice-captain, Dinesh Karthik led a side featuring AB de Villiers and Virender Sehwag in 2010, after their regular captain, Gautam Gambhir, was injured early in the season. While Karthik had led Tamil Nadu and South Zone before that, he was a surprising choice ahead of the more experienced Sehwag and de Villiers at that point. He won one out of his three games as captain, before Gambhir was back in the saddle.

Miller was a surprising choice to lead Kings XI, given that he had no significant captaincy experience. An established member of the side since he was signed in 2011, Miller's form dropped during a disastrous run of five losses in their first six games of the season. He was immediately replaced as the captain midway into the season, while being declared as an "integral part of the team" by his franchise owners.

Vijay was Miller's replacement and was short on prior captaincy experience himself. He had led his state side, Tamil Nadu, in just 13 games across formats. His form wasn't much better than Miller's - he had scored 143 runs in six innings till then. Kings XI fared only marginally better under him, winning three of their remaining eight fixtures, before bowing out.