Gujarat Titans come into the season as defending champions. They beat Rajasthan Royals in the final in Ahmedabad in 2022. Hardik Pandya led Gujarat Titans to success in his debut season as captain. Sanju Samson, who was captain of Rajasthan Royals, also garnered plaudits for his performance as skipper throughout the campaign.

Both of them are expected to captain their respective sides in IPL 2023 again. MS Dhoni is also back at the helm for Chennai Super Kings and will hope to reach the playoffs after an ordinary campaign in 2022. Rohit Sharma, meanwhile, will lead Mumbai Indians, who are coming off their worst season, while Faf du Plessis and KL Rahul will respectively be in charge of Royal Challengers Bangalore and Lucknow Super Giants.

There will be a few new captains this edition as well. Rishabh Pant, after his unfortunate accident, has been ruled out of cricket for an indefinite amount of time. For Delhi Capitals, David Warner will be leading the side. The injured Shreyas Iyer is likely to miss at least the first part of the IPL as well, with Nitish Rana named skipper in his absence.

Sunrisers Hyderabad, on the other hand, have appointed South Africa all-rounder Aiden Markram as captain as they hope to fare better than the last two seasons. Punjab Kings also released Mayank Agarwal in the off-season and have since replaced him with Shikhar Dhawan as captain.

IPL 2023 captains: Full list of skippers

Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni

Delhi Capitals: David Warner (leading in the absence of Rishabh Pant)

Gujarat Titans: Hardik Pandya

Kolkata Knight Riders: Nitish Rana (leading in the absence of the injured Shreyas Iyer)

Lucknow Super Giants: KL Rahul

Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma

Punjab Kings: Shikhar Dhawan

Rajasthan Royals: Sanju Samson

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Faf du Plessis

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Aiden Markram (for the first match, Bhuvneshwar Kumar will lead the side)