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The 16th edition of the IPL has gotten off to a very exciting start. Over the last two weeks, we have witnessed some incredible performances by players who are at different stages in their careers.
Most team captains have performed pretty well in their specific roles. Shikhar Dhawan, Nitish Rana, Faf du Plessis and Aiden Markram have been among the top performing captains this season.
But in this piece, we shall take a look at three captains who are making their teams worse in IPL 2023.
#1 David Warner
David Warner is one of the all-time greats in the IPL. He is only the third player to score over 6000 runs in the coveted T20 competition. Warner's consistency and scoring rate have been incredible - a combination that very few batters have achieved in the format.
The Aussie has scored 228 runs in five matches this season and is fourth in the race for the Orange Cap. However, Warner's runs have come at a strike rate of only 116.92.
This essentially means that although he is scoring big runs, he isn't able to do it at a quick run rate. While the entire Delhi Capitals batting lineup has been out of form, the captain's performances in particular have affected their overall output with the bat this season.
#2 Hardik Pandya
Hardik Pandya was one of the key figures in the Gujarat Titans' title run last season; he scored 487 runs in 15 innings at an average of 44 and a strike rate of 131. Pandya also took eight wickets at an economy rate of 7.28.
However, he has had a poor start in IPL 2023, scoring just 49 runs in four innings and taking one wicket in 10 overs - five of which were in the powerplay. Pandya's T20 batting form, in fact, has been rather poor since the Asia Cup, barring a few knocks here and there.
Pandya's struggles against good-length bowling are well-documented, and this season he has not scored as quickly as he used to a couple of years ago.
#3 KL Rahul
While KL Rahul has been a consistent run-getter in the IPL, he has faced a lot of criticism for his slow batting over the last three years.
Rahul produced a subpar performance in the ICC Men's T20 World Cup last year, following which he did not play a single match for the national team in the T20 format.
In IPL 2023, Rahul has scored 155 runs in five innings at an average of 31 and a strike rate of 113 - the lowest for any batter with over 100 runs this season. Most notably, he scored a 20-ball 18 while chasing 213 against the Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Monday, April 10.
Even though LSG won the match, Rahul's efforts were detrimental to their cause. The team was saved by the remarkable ball-striking of Marcus Stoinis and Nicholas Pooran.
