Qualifying for the IPL playoffs is the target of every team playing in the league. The top four teams in the points table after the end of all the league stage matches progress to the second round of the tournament. Initially, the IPL had a semifinals system, wherein the first-placed team competed against the fourth-placed team, while the third and fourth-placed teams took on each other in the semifinals.
From 2012 onwards, the BCCI introduced a new system, where the top two teams competed against each other in Qualifier 1, followed by an Eliminator game between the third and fourth-placed teams. The loser of Qualifier 1 takes on the winner of the Eliminator in the Qualifier 2, while the winner of Qualifier 1 advances to the final.
Next, the winner of the Qualifier 2 match takes on the winner of Qualifier 1 in the summit clash. IPL started in 2008, and since then, there have been only two such instances when captains of all four teams in the playoffs were Indians.
1. All captains of IPL 2023 playoffs teams are Indians
The four teams that have qualified for the playoffs this year are Gujarat Titans, Lucknow Super Giants, Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians. The captains of the four teams are Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma, respectively. It will be exciting to see which team wins the trophy this year.
2. IPL 2012
The only previous occasion when the Top 4 teams had an Indian player as the captain was back in the year 2012. In that season, the top four teams were Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians, Delhi Daredevils and Kolkata Knight Riders. The four captains were MS Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir.
Gautam won the IPL trophy in that season. 11 years later, now in IPL 2023, he is working as the mentor of the Lucknow Super Giants team.
