Rohit Sharma vs MS Dhoni – Who is the better IPL captain?

Rohit Sharma and Mahendra Singh Dhoni are two very different individuals and batsmen, yet they are exceptionally strong leaders who have excelled as captains. While Dhoni has had immense success across both international cricket and in the IPL, Rohit’s success as a leader has mostly remained confined within the boundaries of the IPL. So, if we want to judge their qualities as a captain, we will have to judge them on the basis of IPL performances only. Let’s have a look at the following factors to determine that.

Winning Percentage as captain

Dhoni is the most successful captain in the history of the IPL in terms of matches won. Nobody has a higher win percentage than him. Rohit, on the other hand, is placed at the third spot in this list. However, his win percentage is only marginally lower than that of Dhoni and he has won four titles in lesser number of seasons as compared to Dhoni as well. Hence, we can’t distinguish between them on the basis of such a marginal difference. So let’s take a look at other metrics.

Records against teams led by each other

Mumbai Indians led by Rohit Sharma has played against Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings a total of 16 times. Out of that, Rohit has led Mumbai to 10 wins whereas Dhoni has only six wins under his belt for CSK. As far as Dhoni’s record as Rising Pune Supergiant captain is considered, he played two matches against Rohit’s MI as captain and won one out of it with Rohit winning the other. So Rohit has won a total of 11 matches as captain against teams under Dhoni’s leadership. Hence, he has the upper hand in this field.

Batting record against teams led by each other

In terms of batting record against teams led by each other, Rohit edges out Dhoni by a fair margin as well. Rohit has a superior average and strike-rate of 35.8p and 121.95 against all teams led by Dhoni in the IPL. Dhoni, on the other hand, has a lower average of 30.56 against teams under Rohit’s leadership and his runs have come at a dismal strike-rate of 105.98 as well.

If all these factors are considered, Rohit deserves quite a lot of credit as a captain. He has not only won more IPL titles than Dhoni but also beats him in terms of head-to-head record, be it in terms of batting numbers or number of matches won against each other. He has achieved all this without any prior experience of captaincy at the domestic and the international level and hence, he can be considered as someone with natural leadership abilities.

Written by : Prasenjit Dey