Meet the eight captains leading their teams in IPL 7

New Delhi: The cash-rich Indian Premier League is coming back this year for its 7th edition starting from 16th April and eight teams will be competing against each other for this one and a half month long event to be held in Dubai and India. After Pune Warriors exit from the IPL after last season, the tournament again have 8 teams. Lets take a look on the eight leaders who will be leading the charge of their franchises: 1) M.S.Dhoni: One of the most successful captain in World cricket in recent times is ready to take charge for Chennai Super Kings again in this season. Despite controversies related to CSK, the skipper kept his cool and is ready for the battle. Dhoni has the record of leading any IPL team for the most 96 times in 6 seasons, which includes 58 wins and 37 losses. With 2 IPL titles and qualifying for 5 times in IPL final, he would definitely like to add one more T20 trophy in his pocket. 2) Kevin Pietersen: All new look Delhi Daredevils appointed swashbuckling English batsman Kevin Pietersen as their captain for IPL 7 with wicket-keeper batsman Dinesh Karthik as his deputy. Pietersen joined Delhi Daredevils in 2012 and made an impact with his eight-match outing amassing 305 runs with an average of 61. He was unavailable in 2013 due to an injury but made it a point to visit the team and spend valuable time with the youngsters in the squad.3) George Bailey: Australia's T20 captain George Bailey will lead Kings XI Punjab in the seventh edition of the Indian Premier League. The right-hand batsman was was bought by the franchise in this year's auction at a price of Rs 3.25 crore. Bailey has proved his mettle as a captain by leading the Australian team to several victories in the past.4) Gautam Gambhir: Gautam Gambhir will be once again leading Kolkata Knight Riders for the fourth time in IPL. He was retained by the franchise in this year's auction with the mystery spinner Sunil Narine. After guiding his team to the playoffs in his first season with KKR in 2011, the Knights were back with a bang in 2012 and won their maiden IPL title beating Chennai Super Kings in a thrilling final at the Chepauk. Last year the team ranked 7th in the points table. 5) Rohit Sharma: He will be leading the defending champions Mumbai Indians this year. Rohit took over as captain last year and during his first innings as a captain, he took the team to their maiden IPL title beating CSK. He would definitely like to repeat the feat as he is in good batting form. 6) Shane Watson: Rajasthan Royals appointed the Aussie all-rounder Shane Watson as the captain of franchise for the seventh edition this year in place of retired Rahul Dravid who is now working as a mentor for RR. He would try to repeat the 2008 feat in which his strong performances helped the franchise to win the inaugural IPL. 7) Virat Kohli: The flamboyant Indian batsman is set to lead RCB for second time in IPL. He was appointed as a captain by the franchise last year by replacing veteran Kiwi Daniel Vettori. His recent run form will definitely turn out to be most important factor for RCB in this season. No doubt, if he wins this IPL title, he will be strongly contesting with Dhoni for Team India captaincy. He holds the 2nd highest, IPL 2nd wicket partnership record (204*) with Chris Gayle against KXIP in 2012. 8) Shikhar Dhawan: Indian star opener Shikhar Dhawan would lead his side Sunrisers Hyderabad in the 7th edition of cash rich IPL and Darren Sammy as his deputy. His significant contribution for the franchise last year has retained his position in the team not just as an opener but also as an appropriate choice for a new skipper. Though he has not been successful in World T20 campaign in Bangladesh, he would also be looking to find his lost form back.