In a competitive league like the IPL, a lot of factors go into determining the performance of a team. One of the success mantras has been a decent captain. Teams like CSK and MI who have been so successful in the history of the league, have had legendary captains in MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma.

Conversely, teams like PBKS who have struggled in the tournament have never had a stable captain. This is a major reason for their failure to win the trophy. So a new captain might help some teams to improve.

The Karnataka batsman, Manish Pandey has been captaining the Karnataka domestic team for a while now. He has done a very successful job there, leading them to many titles. Pandey also has immense experience in the IPL, playing for more than a decade.

Hence, we look at 3 teams who can target Manish Pandey as captain in the IPL:

1) Kolkata Knight Riders

The first team that can have Manish Pandey as captain is the Kolkata Knight Riders. The Riders have won the IPL twice under the extraordinary captaincy of Gautam Gambhir, who played a pivotal role in their success. But after Gambhir’s exit, KKR has struggled to get going.

They appointed a new captain in Dinesh Karthik after the mega-auction of 2018. Though Karthik did a good job in the first couple of seasons as captain, he failed miserably in 2020. They had a mid-season captaincy change, and the current World Cup holding Captain, Eoin Morgan was given the reigns.

Despite it, KKR did not do well. In the 2021 season too, they won only two matches in the games played. Looking at all of this, Pandey can be brought in by the franchise in the mega auction of 2022. Manish has played for the Riders in many seasons, doing well as a batsman. Thus KKR can have him back and this time as a captain.

2) Punjab Kings

The Punjab Kings have always had problems with their captaincy. Every season they are in the search of a stable captain, which definitely has a lot of impact on their performance over the years.

One interesting stat is that PBKS is the team that has had the most number of captains over the years. They have tried weird and different tactics like appointing Glenn Maxwell as the captain to put more responsibility on him or mid-season captaincy transfer to Murali Vijay. Even after the mega-auction of 2018, they have changed their captain once from Ravi Ashwin to KL Rahul.

Rahul has done decently as a captain but the results are not evident. They failed to qualify for the playoffs in 2020 and were in the bottom 4 of the table in 2021 when the league was suspended.

Thus, Punjab can try Manish Pandey in their scheme of things. Pandey will fit in well as the backbone of their middle-order which looks fragile currently. His domestic captaincy experience will come in handy at the IPL level too and the change in leadership will definitely have an impact on the Kings’ performance.

3) Chennai Super Kings

Here we have an unexpected team on our list that can have Manish Pandey as captain. CSK are one of the most successful teams in the IPL, winning the trophy 3 times. They have never had any issues with their captaincy as they are under the legendary leadership of the great MS Dhoni.

However, MS Dhoni is at the last stage of his career and might not play for a long time, he may even opt out in the very next season. At such a time, a new leader shall be needed who can accept the baton from a legend like Dhoni. Pandey can be a very good choice here for CSK.

CSK have players like Suresh Raina and Faf du Plessis who can lead the team because of their association with CSK for all these years. But even they are not going to play for a very long time.

So instead of giving them the captaincy for a couple of seasons, Pandey can take control and can be well-groomed for a season or two under the experienced MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina. As a result, he will be in complete control and confidence with his leadership when the legends retire.