Five reasons why IPL 2018 promises to be exciting

#4 Captaincy with guile and exuberance

Ashwin will turn out for KXIP as skipper this year.

Two cricketers, both very contrasting in demeanor will be making their captaincy debut in this year's IPL. The case in point here is Ravichandran Ashwin and Dinesh Karthik.

Ashwin, blessed with an astute mindset and pristine games sense along with years of experience, will bring a much needed guile to the Kings XI setup, who have in the past struggled to find a leader, his relationship with coach Virender Sehwag will be pivotal to their team's fortune.

It'll also be interesting to see how Ashwin keeps his personal ambitions aside of proving himself as a white ball bowler in a bid to stage a comeback and how he manages superstars like Chris Gayle, Yuvraj Singh and get the best out of them.

Dinesh Karthik will captain KKR in IPL 11.

While KXIP doesn't have any substantial legacy of a captain for Ashwin to live up to, it is exactly what faces Dinesh Karthik as he moves to the land of Korbo Lorbo Jeetbo, Kolkata Night Riders, a team with a rich legacy of captaincy.

The way both of the aforementioned names respond to the rigours of captaincy amidst more established ones in MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma and others will be fascinating to watch.