The Worst Performing Captains In IPL 2025: Indian Premier League is the longest-running annual competition on the cricketing calendar. The two-month-long competition tests a team’s consistency, squad depth, and leadership. So, for good-performing teams in the IPL, captaincy plays a major role. Those who perform well in the captain’s role have their teams do well throughout the season.
However, today we are discussing every IPL 2025 captain’s on-field performance. Rather than focusing on their leadership skills, our focus will be on how these skippers perform as players who are part of the playing XI.
To judge the performance of all captains as players, it is important for them to play most of their team’s matches this season. So, the likes of CSK’s Ruturaj Gaikwad and RR’s Sanju Samson do not qualify for this list. That is because, despite their numbers not being impressive, just like their teams’ performance this season, they have missed much of this season due to injury.
So, here are the top 3 worst performing captains in IPL 2025:
Top 3 Worst Performing Captains In IPL 2025
3) Rajat Patidar – RCB
This is a name that will surprise many. IPL 2025 has been one of the best seasons for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru in their history. This has come under the first-time captain Rajat Patidar. So his presence on this list will come as a shock to some. But remember, this list is purely based on how the captains performed as players this season, and Patidar has not been a standout player for his side.
In the 11 matches he has played this season, the skipper has made 239 runs at an average of 23.90 and a strike rate of a hair over 140. He has scored only two 50s despite being a prominent part of his team’s middle order. He obviously does not bowl and thus has no wickets. This might be his worst season in the IPL.
While these numbers might be a little underwhelming, naming Rajat Patidar in this list seems a bit harsh, and it might be. The truth is that most captains in IPL 2025 are among the best-performing players this season.
Captains like GT’s Shubman Gill, PBKS’ Shreyas Iyer, RR’s Riyan Parag, and KKR’s Ajinkya Rahane are among the best batters for their side. Axar Patel and Hardik Pandya are having fine seasons as all-rounders, and Pat Cummins is the second-highest wicket-taker for his side. The teams not mentioned here might be spoilers for the rest of this list.
2) MS Dhoni – CSK
MS Dhoni is not the regular captain of the Chennai Super Kings anymore. However, when Ritiraj Gaikwad went down with an injury after just five games, Dhoni stepped in to save the sinking ship that was CSK’s IPL 2025 campaign. But the legendary Indian wicketkeeper-batter was not able to do that, seeing that his side is buried at the bottom of the table.
Dhoni was retained for Rs. 4 crore ahead of this season despite him not batting too much in the past few seasons. He was mainly in the team for wicketkeeping and leadership. He had to step up in his role as a leader and a batter when he was named the captain of the side.
In the 12 matches he has played this season, MS Dhoni has made 180 runs at an average of just over 25 and a strike rate of barely over 140. And while it is what one would expect from a 43-year-old batting at No. 8 or 9, his coming down too late in the batting order is partially to blame for CSK’s woes this season.
And while the veteran wicketkeeper’s performance is not the biggest concern for this team, his playing a crucial role five years after retiring from international cricket says a lot about this franchise and its troubles this year.
1) Rishabh Pant – LSG
At the IPL 2025 mega-auction, Rishabh Pant became the most expensive player in league history when the Lucknow Super Giants bought him for a whopping Rs. 27 crore. He was then named the captain of the team and handed the reins of the franchise. Fast forward a few months, and he has now become one of the worst-performing captains in IPL history over a season and the inspiration for this list.
Pant is having an absolute stinker of a season. This might be the worst IPL season for a superstar of the Indian cricket team and a top-level international player. While batters around him in the LSG batting order are having career-best seasons, Rishabh’s poor performances have brought the team down to the point that they are now out of the race for the playoffs.
In the 12 matches he has played, the 27-year-old has scored just 135 runs with a disgustingly poor average of 12.27 and a strike rate of 100. He has also scored just one half-century despite being a pillar of his team’s batting order. Not only that, he has also not had the best season as a wicketkeeper, dropping catches and missing stumping chances.
Rishabh Pant’s IPL 2025 season might be the worst price-to-performance ratio in the history of the Indian Premier League.
Check Out: Top 3 Worst Performing Captains In IPL 2025
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