The 16th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is set to get underway on March 31. All the teams have now officially announced their captains with the latest being Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) whose regular skipper Shreyas Iyer is more or less ruled out of the entire season. But there have been instances when the franchises had to change their captain midway through the season for some or the other reason. In that process, a few unlikely players were made the skipper of the team. Here's a list of such players you don't know who led an IPL team during the last 15 editions
1. Murali Vijay
Murali Vijay is majorly known for his excellent record in the knockouts while playing for the Chennai Super Kings (CSK). But he was with the Punjab Kings (then Kings XI Punjab) in 2016. The franchise had named David Miller as their skipper for the season but sacked him midway after the team lost five out of first six games. Murali Vijay was then appointed the captain of the side for the rest of the season. But that didn't change Punjab's fortunes as they finished at the bottom of the table with only four wins in 14 matches.
2. Karun Nair
This will be a huge surprise for many. Yes, Karun Nair has led an IPL team back in 2017 when he was with the Delhi Capitals (then Delhi Daredevils). The original skipper Zaheer Khan got injured during the tournament and the management decided to go ahead with Karun Nair as the stand-in captain despite his poor record until then. Nair had scored 17 runs in six innings before he was trusted to take over the charge from Zaheer on a temporary basis. Nevertheless, Nair did a decent job with Delhi winning two and losing one in the three matches he led the side.
Manish Pandey became a household name back in 2009 when he smashed a century while playing for RCB. He became the first Indian player to cross the three-figure mark in the cash-rich league. However, over the years, his massive potential hasn't turned into something big at the international level or even in the IPL. Pandey was considered the next big thing in Indian cricket but he is currently out of reckoning in the Indian team as well. In this case, Pandey leading a team comes as a massive surprise for many as he was the captain of SRH in one game during IPL 2021. Kane Williamson had opted to rest in that game while vice-captain Bhuvneshwar Kumar was also unfit and hence, Pandey stepped in to fill the role in the game against Mumbai Indians.
