The Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) captain KL Rahul went past Rahul Dravid’s captaincy record in the IPL and is targetting that of Sachin Tendulkar next.
Rahul marched his side, LSG, on the field on Saturday, against Gujarat Titans in Lucknow. This was Rahul’s 49th match as a captain in the IPL, going past the 48-match tally of Dravid, who led RCB and RR in his IPL career.
KL Rahul is now in the 11th spot of most matches as IPL captain.
Just ahead of him is former Mumbai Indians captain Master-Blaster, who led MI in 51 IPL matches.
KL first captained in the IPL as a full-time skipper in IPL 2020 for Punjab Kings and led them again in 2021. However, he couldn’t take them to the playoffs both times and after a fallout with the management, Rahul decided to leave Punjab and was roped in by Lucknow Super Giants for INR 17 crore ahead of IPL 2022 mega-auction, the new franchise making its mark with a big signing.
LSG had a good start to their IPL as Rahul marched them in the playoffs, where they failed to reach the final.
Out of the 48 matches that he’s captained in the IPL, his team has won 24 and lost 22.
The overall list is topped by MS Dhoni, who has played 216 matches as captain for CSK and RPSG. Dhoni recently became the first player to lead a single franchise in IPL in 200 matches.
Five-time IPL-winning captain, Rohit Sharma (147 matches), is at the 2nd spot followed by Virat Kohli (141 matches) and Gautam Gambhir (129 matches).
Meanwhile, speaking of the ongoing LSG-GT match, Hardik Pandya won the toss and elected to bat first in Lucknow.
Here are the teams:
Teams:
Gujarat Titans (Playing XI): Wriddhiman Saha(w), Shubman Gill, Hardik Pandya(c), Vijay Shankar, Abhinav Manohar, David Miller, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Mohammed Shami, Noor Ahmad, Mohit Sharma
Lucknow Super Giants (Playing XI): KL Rahul(c), Kyle Mayers, Deepak Hooda, Marcus Stoinis, Krunal Pandya, Nicholas Pooran(w), Ayush Badoni, Naveen-ul-Haq, Amit Mishra, Avesh Khan, Ravi Bishnoi