Former Australian cricketer Shane Warne is the only captain of the Rajasthan Royals (RR) to lead them to lift the title. Indian cricketer Yusuf Pathan, who was the part of the RR’s win, heaps the praise of Warne’s leadership during the tournament.
The all-time great spinner captained Royals for continuous four-season, last being in 2011. His outstanding captaincy in the inaugural edition of the lucrative league led them to win the grand final against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) by three wickets. The allrounder Yusuf also proved vital for RR and was also awarded Man of the Match in the finale of IPL 2008 season.
Yusuf Pathan heaps praise of Shane Warne’s captaincy:
Yusuf, who has played under Warne for three years, said that former Australian cricketer with his apt tactics guided the team to victory though the team didn’t have many superstars.
“I played for three years under Shane Warne in IPL. There are many memories with him. He used to guide us how to dismiss batsmen well before the game and we used to implement them and batsmen used to get out in a similar fashion,” Yusuf Pathan said as quoted by Times Of India.
“Unfortunately, I couldn’t play for more than three years under him. Without any big players, he took our team to the final and won the title in the inaugural edition, there were many domestic players and less international stars during that time in RR. Only a captain like him can win the title with a few resources around,” he said.
A year before the inaugural edition, Warne had retired from international cricket. In IPL 2008, he picked up 19 wickets in 15 matches. All in all, in the four-season, he notched up 57 wickets in 55 games at an economy rate of 7.27.