Every IPL Title-Winning Captain, From Warne to Patidar
Nine men have lifted the trophy as captain. Two of them have done it five times each.
Eighteen IPL finals have produced just nine title-winning captains. Two of them, MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma, account for ten of the eighteen trophies between them.
The full list
| Season | Captain | Champions | Final |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Shane Warne | RR Rajasthan Royals | Beat Chennai Super Kings, won by 3 wickets (Navi Mumbai) |
| 2009 | Adam Gilchrist | DEC Deccan Chargers | Beat Royal Challengers Bengaluru, won by 6 runs (Johannesburg) |
| 2010 | MS Dhoni | CSK Chennai Super Kings | Beat Mumbai Indians, won by 22 runs (Navi Mumbai) |
| 2011 | MS Dhoni | CSK Chennai Super Kings | Beat Royal Challengers Bengaluru, won by 58 runs (Chennai) |
| 2012 | Gautam Gambhir | KKR Kolkata Knight Riders | Beat Chennai Super Kings, won by 5 wickets (Chennai) |
| 2013 | Rohit Sharma | MI Mumbai Indians | Beat Chennai Super Kings, won by 23 runs (Kolkata) |
| 2014 | Gautam Gambhir | KKR Kolkata Knight Riders | Beat Kings XI Punjab, won by 3 wickets (Bengaluru) |
| 2015 | Rohit Sharma | MI Mumbai Indians | Beat Chennai Super Kings, won by 41 runs (Kolkata) |
| 2016 | David Warner | SRH Sunrisers Hyderabad | Beat Royal Challengers Bengaluru, won by 8 runs (Bengaluru) |
| 2017 | Rohit Sharma | MI Mumbai Indians | Beat Rising Pune Supergiant, won by 1 run (Hyderabad) |
| 2018 | MS Dhoni | CSK Chennai Super Kings | Beat Sunrisers Hyderabad, won by 8 wickets (Mumbai) |
| 2019 | Rohit Sharma | MI Mumbai Indians | Beat Chennai Super Kings, won by 1 run (Hyderabad) |
| 2020 | Rohit Sharma | MI Mumbai Indians | Beat Delhi Capitals, won by 5 wickets (Dubai) |
| 2021 | MS Dhoni | CSK Chennai Super Kings | Beat Kolkata Knight Riders, won by 27 runs (Dubai) |
| 2022 | Hardik Pandya | GT Gujarat Titans | Beat Rajasthan Royals, won by 7 wickets (Ahmedabad) |
| 2023 | MS Dhoni | CSK Chennai Super Kings | Beat Gujarat Titans, won by 5 wickets (DLS) (Ahmedabad) |
| 2024 | Shreyas Iyer | KKR Kolkata Knight Riders | Beat Sunrisers Hyderabad, won by 8 wickets (Chennai) |
| 2025 | Rajat Patidar | RCB Royal Challengers Bengaluru | Beat Punjab Kings, won by 6 runs (Ahmedabad) |
Dhoni and Rohit: five each
MS Dhoni was Chennai Super Kings captain from the first season in 2008 until 2023, apart from a short spell in 2022. He led them in all ten of their finals and won five: 2010, 2011, 2018, 2021 and 2023. The last of those came on a rain-hit reserve day in Ahmedabad, in a final that finished after midnight.
Rohit Sharma took over as Mumbai Indians captain partway through the 2013 season and won the title that same year. He added four more in 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2020, including three finals won against Dhoni's Chennai. Rohit had also won the IPL as a player before that, with the Deccan Chargers in 2009.
Gambhir: two for Kolkata
Gautam Gambhir is the only other captain to win the title twice, leading Kolkata Knight Riders to their first two trophies in 2012 and 2014. He was back at KKR as mentor when they won a third in 2024.
The three overseas captains
Only three overseas players have captained an IPL-winning side:
- Shane Warne, Rajasthan Royals, 2008: a squad few expected anything of, led by a captain who was also the coach.
- Adam Gilchrist, Deccan Chargers, 2009: champions in South Africa a year after finishing last.
- David Warner, Sunrisers Hyderabad, 2016: the season Sunrisers won from third place in the table.
Winning at the first attempt
Some captains did not need long. Warne won in the league's very first season. Hardik Pandya won with Gujarat Titans in 2022, the franchise's first season and his first as an IPL captain. Rajat Patidar won in 2025 in his first season as RCB captain, ending an 18-year wait for the franchise.
And Shreyas Iyer, champion with Kolkata in 2024, has reached finals with three different franchises, a story we tell in full in our Shreyas Iyer feature.
Stats in this article are correct to the end of the 2025 IPL season.
