Recently a stat went around highlighting Hardik Pandya as the most successful IPL captain in terms of winning percentage. The Baroda all-rounder has a winning percentage of 75 and has captained the Gujarat Titans to 15 wins from 20 matches.
Next on the list, of course, is Chennai Super Kings skipper MS Dhoni, who has a winning percentage of 58.99. Dhoni, who led CSK and RPSG, has 128 wins and 88 losses from 217 matches. Surprisingly, the 5-time IPL winning skipper, Rohit Sharma, sits on the 7th spot with a winning percentage of 56.08.
While the sample size of Hardik Pandya as a captain is very low compared to MS Dhoni, it is still a good measure of his leadership qualities that has also seen him get elevated to the leadership group in the Indian team.
Hardik Pandya is nowhere near MS Dhoni in DRS success rate
Another factor in the captaincy debate is the DRS success rate. Recently the broadcasters of the IPL 2023 also showed the success rate of the two captains in terms of DRS.
It is with no surprise that MS Dhoni has a very high success percentage of 85.71% in IPL 2023. They don’t call it the “Dhoni Review System” for nothing. Pandya, on the other hand, has an ordinary success rate of 41.6% with the DRS.
MS Dhoni has set incredibly high standards for others to catch up with in the DRS era. His astute, eagle-eyed view from behind the stumps and his marvelous judgmental skills of the conditions has made him a master of DRS. Dhoni has challenged the best of the umpires and got their decision overturned.
Talking about IPL 2023, both CSK and GT are in the top 4 of the points table, and both have 10 points in 8 matches. While Pandya has once again been clinical with his captaincy, he’s got a good team to work with. Dhoni, however, has been phenomenal in bringing out the best in Rahane, Deshpande, and Shivam Dube and has had to work with an injury-forced depleted CSK pace bowling attack.
