It was at a testimonial lecture a few years back that Sourav Ganguly, one of the greatest Indian captains ever, had an interesting take on the pressures of captaincy of an IPL team. For him, captaining the national team was often an ‘easier’ task than a IPL side for in the former, the captain didn’t have to contend with advice from the franchise owners or his lackeys on technical issues.

Tongue-in-cheek as his comment may have been, Ganguly’s views were borne out of experience of rather unhappy experiences at the helm of first Kolkata Knight Riders and then the now-defunct Sahara Pune Warriors. The idea behind referring to the above story is to highlight the pressures – on and off the field – that may make or mar any IPL captain.

The recent example of Kings XI Punjab team, who replaced young South African David Miller rather unceremoniously with Indian opener Murali Vijay, is a case in point. The explosive Miller had been having a patchy run with the bat while his team was on a horror losing streak in IPL IX – leading one to believe that the move was to relieve ‘Killer Miller’ of the pressures of captaincy in order to give his best as a batsman.

There have been several such instances where the franchise management has changed captains midway – ostensibly to find the scapegoat. It’s in this context that one must laud the Indian players’ ability to soak up the pressures of captaincy and bring the best out of his players in the ultra-competitive atmosphere of the league. The following piece of statistic will bear me out – on six occasions out of its eight editions, the champions were led by Indian captains with each lifting the trophy twice (M.S.Dhoni with Chennai Super Kings, Rohit Sharma with Mumbai Indians and Gautam Gambhir with KKR).

The trend continues in the ongoing edition as well, where all but one team is being led by Indian cricketers. While the likes of a Gambhir or Rohit are proven customers, the way the wily Zaheer Khan has led the turnaround of Delhi Daredevils so far has been quite a revelation.

At the half-way mark of IPL, Delhi may still have some distance to go to assure themselves of a berth in the play-offs, but the organised look of the team compared to the last few seasons is hard to miss.

The Daredevils management, desperate after under-achieving over several seasons now, made a surprise move of naming ‘Zaks,’ 37 and now a retired international, the captain. It was a calculated gamble to name Khan as the captain but as the has season unveiled, it became obvious that there was a method behind their madness.

For someone who was hailed as the fast bowling coach of the Indian team not to long ago, the body still allows him to use the quota of four overs with all the tricks in the bag, but it’s his tactical acumen – borne out of 15 years of international experience – that’s been paying the team rich dividends. Zaheer, of course, attributes the transformation to the new mentor Rahul Dravid and performance coach Paddy Upton, but there’s no doubting his effort and hunger to prove himself one more time on the big stage.

The IPL is now the only option before him and Zaheer seems to be revelling in his new role. If he finally manages to take the team to the last four (and beyond), it may well highlight the worth of a Indian captain to thrive in the pressure-cooker situation of IPL!