We commonly see the term “captains leading from the front” in cricket, and this is true for all the formats of the game. As a skipper of the side, whether their primary role is a batter, bowler, or all-rounder, they have to contribute to the team’s cause more often than not and inspire the team in every possible way.

In the IPL as well, a captain of the side has to play a substantial role, be it taking wickets, scoring runs, or making some sort of impact on the game. If a skipper does these things over a course of time, not only will they be retained in the role for a considerable amount of time, but the team will also greatly benefit from the same.

In this article, we will see the top 10 batters who have scored the most runs as captains in the IPL.

Most Runs as Captain in IPL

PLAYER RUNS AS CAPTAIN INNINGS STRIKE RATE HIGH SCORE 50s/100s
Virat Kohli 4994 142 133.31 113 37/5
MS Dhoni 4753 204 137.05 84* 22/0
Rohit Sharma 3986 157 129.37 98* 25/0
Gautam Gambhir 3518 127 122.79 93 31/0
David Warner 3356 83 140.53 126 32/1
KL Rahul 2691 64 131.97 132* 21/3
Shreyas Iyer 2598 86 137.53 97* 19/0
Sanju Samson 2021 66 145.71 119 12/1
Adam Gilchrist 1900 74 136.59 106 11/1
Sachin Tendulkar 1723 51 120.15 100* 10/1

Key Insights

Virat Kohli has the most aggregate runs when leading the side, and all of his runs came for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). He scored 4994 runs in 142 innings as a skipper in RCB’s colours. (Check out Virat Kohli’s year-wise performance in the league here.)

The only other batter to have amassed more than 4000 runs as skipper is MS Dhoni. Rohit Sharma, who isn’t captaining MI anymore, fell 14 runs short of becoming the third batter to cross the 4000-run milestone.

With 195+ innings, MS Dhoni leads the way with the most batting appearances as a skipper.

Virender Sehwag has the best strike rate among the captains with a minimum of 1000 runs. The opening batter notched up 1524 runs at a strike rate of 167.65 in the 53 matches he led Delhi and Punjab.