- Rahul Dravid (Rajasthan Royals – 2013) – 3rd
Rahul Dravid is known as one of the best IPL captain. After winning the inaugural IPL trophy (2008), Rajasthan Royals had not run well in next 4 IPL season as they finished 6th (2009), 7th (2010), 6th (2011) and 7th position (2012) respectively. However after taking captaincy in 2012, Rahul Dravid also not started very well as his team finished at 7th out of 9 teams in that year where his team only managed to win 7 matches.
But things were changed in IPL 2013 where Rajasthan Royals played very well under Dravid’s captaincy. With very limited foreign star cast, the team equally depended on Indian cricketers. Under Dravid’s captaincy, some new cricketers performed very well along with international stars. Ajinkya Rahane, currently one of India’s talented batsman, was the biggest discovered by Rahul Dravid during his captaincy for Rajasthan Royals.
In 2013 IPL, Rajasthan Royals performed well as they finished 3rd position in the points table after the end of double-round robin system. During the double round robin system, Rajasthan Royals won 10 matches while they lost 6 matches. The team was excellent during their home games in IPL 2013 as they won all the home matches (8 matches) but their performances were heavily decreased during away games as they won only 2 away matches out of 8 matches in IPL 2013 group stage. However at later of group stage in IPL 2013, the spot-fixing charges against three Rajasthan Royals cricketers (S Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan) shook heavily to the team.
Later in the play-offs of IPL 2013, Rajasthan Royals won in the Eliminator against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) but lost in the next game in Qualifier 2 against Mumbai Indians (MI). Though the team finished at 3rd position in IPL 2013, but under Dravid’s captaincy the team once again landed up in their respectable position.
After that IPL 2013, Rajasthan Royals also performed well in Champions League 2013 under Dravid’s captaincy where the team finished as runner-up.