Shreyas Iyer had an individual feat accomplished even before facing a ball in the IPL 2026 clash between Punjab Kings and Royal Challengers Bengaluru in Dharamshala, as the cricketer became only the fifth player in the league’s history to get past the landmark of 100 matches as a captain. He has now entered the list where legendary captains of the IPL, like MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma, Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli, are also present.
Dhoni has led the most number of matches in the league, followed by Rohit. Both the veterans have won five titles each for their respective teams and are still active, but as players. Virat Kohli, who captained RCB for a long, long time, is the only captain in the list to have not won an IPL title as skipper. Gautam Gambhir won two titles as IPL captain and led teams like Delhi Daredevils (now Capitals) and KKR.
Iyer started his captaincy career in the IPL by first leading the Delhi Capitals. He also led the Delhi-based franchise to a final in the 2020 season, where they unfortunately lost to Rohit Sharma’s Mumbai Indians. He then switched to Kolkata Knight Riders in 2024 and made an instant impact, leading the side to an IPL title after a decade, also their third in the league.
Despite a dominating performance for KKR, the franchise released him ahead of the 2025 edition of the tournament, as he was snapped up by the Punjab Kings at the mega auction for a whopping price of INR 26.75 crore. A change in his franchise did not stop Iyer from proving his worth, as he once again took PBKS to the final in 2025. This was Punjab’s first finale appearance since 2014.
Most matches as captain in IPL
| Sr No. | Name | Matches as captain | Teams |
| 1 | MS Dhoni | 235 | CSK, RPSG |
| 2 | Rohit Sharma | 158 | MI |
| 3 | Virat Kohli | 143 | RCB |
| 4 | Gautam Gambhir | 129 | KKR, DD |
| 5 | Shreyas Iyer | 100* | DC, KKR, PBKS |
Iyer is among the most successful Indian captains in T20 cricket in the recent past. He also captains Mumbai in the domestic circuit, having taken the side to a Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy in the 2024 season. Furthermore, he has made a reputation of being a brilliant performer under the pressure of captaincy by scoring a truckload of runs as the leader. He proved it with a 604-run season in 2025 for Punjab.
