IPL 2018: Rating the captains after league stage

The league stage of the 2018 Indian Premier League was probably one of the most interesting ever played. Seven of the eight teams were in contention for the playoff spots before the last round of matches were played. Even the wooden-spooners Delhi Daredevils finished with 10 points, two fewer than fifth, sixth and seventh-placed teams.

Eventually, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Chennai Super Kings, Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals qualified for the playoffs, while two of the most popular sides - Virat Kohli's Royal Challengers Bangalore and Rohit Sharma's Mumbai Indians - missed out after losing their respective last matches.

With IPL set to enter the playoffs, here's looking at how each captain fared in the league stage.

---

Shreyas Iyer (Delhi Daredevils) - 7/10

The Mumbai youngster was handed the captaincy of Daredevils after Gautam Gambhir opted to step down mid-way due to the team's poor performances. Iyer captained DD in eight matches, out of which they won four and lost four. In the six matches under Gambhir's captaincy, DD had lost five and won just one match.

The right-handed batsman led from the front in his very first match as the captain, scoring 93 runs off 40 deliveries against KKR, helping his team win the match by 55 runs. Iyer scored over 400 runs in the tournament and was DD's second highest run-getter.

Considering this was his first big assignment as a captain, Iyer does deserve a seven.

Ravichandran Ashwin (Kings XI Punjab) - 5/10

After helping KXIP to five wins out of the first six encounters, Ashwin was labelled as one of the best captains of the tournament's earlier stages. However, what transpired in the latter half of the league showed how over-experimenting can affect a team's performances in the long run.

Punjab went on to lose seven of their next eight encounters and where they were once looking set to enter the playoffs, they ended up on the penultimate spot. Ashwin surely would've learned quite a few lessons with his and his team's showing in the second half of the tournament.

A five for his captaincy in the first six matches and nothing for the next eight.

Virat Kohli (Royal Challengers Bangalore) - 4/10

The Indian national team captain had another disappointing IPL as a captain which saw his team finish sixth on the league table. Under Kohli's leadership, RCB failed to muster even two wins on the trot until their 12th match of the season.

There were questionable captaincy decisions taken as well and the team never managed to settle down on a combination. Kohli's personal performances as well were not up to the standards he has set for himself.

Rohit Sharma (Mumbai Indians) - 4/10

Another big name who failed miserably in the tournament - both as a captain and as a player. Rohit Sharma, quite like his compatriot and friend Kohli, had a below-par tournament. MI, under his leadership, finished fifth on the table with six wins in 14 matches.

As a batsman, Rohit somehow managed 286 runs in 14 matches. Though Mumbai staged a bit of a comeback in the latter half of the league, they fell to Delhi in their last encounter, which saw them bow out of the tournament.

A disappointing performance from the defending champions and their captain.

Ajinkya Rahane (Rajasthan Royals) - 6/10

Though Rajasthan Royals managed to sneak into the playoffs, Rahane's captaincy wasn't up to the mark. There were a lot of questionable decisions taken which included sending himself to open the batting.

Rahul Tripathi, who was brilliant for Pune in last year's IPL, was demoted down the order and Jofra Archer was drafted into the side pretty late. The decision to send Jos Buttler to open the innings, though, turned out to be a game-changer.

However, quite clearly, that move was made out of desperation when RR had to chase down over 151 runs in 12 overs against DD.

With the bat as well Rahane wasn't as impressive and scored 324 runs at a meagre strike rate of 119 in the league stage. But with seven wins in 14 matches, RR did manage to qualify for the playoffs and the team would love their skipper to finally step up.

Dinesh Karthik (Kolkata Knight Riders) - 8/10

The Tamil Nadu wicketkeeper-batsman has had a great IPL so far. Helping his side to eight wins and in the process finishing as the highest run-getter for his side with 438 runs at a strike rate of almost 150, Karthik was easily one of the best captains of the league stage.

Some of his decisions were game-changing as well, the most important of them came against RCB, where he introduced Nitish Rana into the attack and the Delhi all-rounder ended up taking the wickets of both AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli in the same over.

Moreover, Karthik repeatedly walked lower down the order and allowed the rest of his pack to play their natural game. KKR players would love more of the same from their captain in the playoffs.

MS Dhoni (Chennai Super Kings) - 9/10

MS Dhoni made a grand return to captaincy with his best IPL season ever. The former Indian captain led CSK to nine wins, helping them finish second on the table behind SRH.

The wicketkeeper-batsman didn't look out of touch, both in terms of captaincy and batting. He finished the league stage as Chennai's second highest run-scorer with 446 runs at an average of 89 and strike rate of 157.

This IPL, well and truly, saw the return of Dhoni the captain and Dhoni the finisher.

Kane Williamson (Sunrisers Hyderabad) - 9.5/10

After David Warner's ban from the 2018 IPL, few imagined that Williamson would actually overhaul the Australian's contributions and help his team cruise to the playoffs with nine wins in 14 encounters.

The New Zealand batsman led his side from the front, scoring 661 runs which include as many as eight half-centuries. He marshalled his troops in a near-perfect manner and when the rest of their players found the going tough, Williamson took matters into his own hands.

The SRH skipper certainly deserves to play in the final of the IPL this year.