Who Are the Most Successful Captains in T20 Cricket?

But on a par with these in terms of importance is having an experienced, resourceful and imaginative captain in charge who can manage their troops effectively. The best captains in T20 cricket must also know what’s best to do when winning the toss, rotate their bowlers effectively, set good fields, make good use of the DRS system and think on their feet throughout the match, where every run scored or saved could have a huge bearing on the outcome of the match. 

Let’s look at the most successful T20 captains, both at international level and in the IPL, explaining how we went about crunching the numbers. Some of the captains featured here are some of the most respected leaders in the shortest format, while a couple of the names here might surprise you. 

Methodology

In our bid to get to the bottom of the question of who has the best T20 captaincy records, we conducted some heavy analysis using some of the best resources available online, which include HowStat, ESPNcricinfo, and Khel Now. Taking all of them into account, painted a good picture of who was among the cream of the cream in terms of T20 leadership stats. Among the key metrics were the number of matches they were in charge of and their winning percentage. 

However, we then went a step further by introducing the SportsBoom Metascale. This gave different weightings to the different metrics and also took T20 World Cup wins into account, which makes sense given that that’s the ultimate prize in the T20 format. Only after going through this last stage of the process could we decide who are the most successful T20 captains. 

10 Most Successful T20I Captains According to Web Critics

The first stage of the process is to consider which players had the most matches as T20 captain in the international arena, alongside the best win percentage, in the matches where they were in charge. 

Top of the tree in our first table is former Pakistani skipper Babar Azam, who actually had two spells in charge of their T20 side before surrendering the captaincy for a second time in 2024. 

No-one was skipper in more international matches than his 85, although we should spare a thought for Uganda’s B Musaba, who holds a brilliant win percentage record of 75%, albeit from fewer matches. 

Most Successful Captains in IPL History

The IPL is regarded as the biggest, richest and most competitive domestic T20 league in the world. Captains of IPL sides need to handle the pressure of huge expectation from passionate fans and demanding team owners as well as manage players from different parts of India, and the world, with very diverse personalities. 

In this case, the table of the IPL most successful captains is based solely on the number of matches in which they were in charge, with the great MS Dhoni streets ahead of everyone else.