Taking a hat-trick in the IPL is the dream of many bowlers. If a bowler takes three wickets in three balls, his team generally ends up winning the match because it causes a major shift in momentum. The batting team loses three quick wickets in no time, and if those wickets are of main batters, then the chances of a win for the bowling team increase significantly.
It is rare to see hat-tricks in IPL because the world’s best batters play here. However, the world’s best bowlers also participate in this competition, and quite a few of them have managed to take three wickets off three balls. Some of them also managed to achieve this feat while playing as a captain of their team. Here’s a list of three such names.
1. Rashid Khan took a hat-trick as captain yesterday
Rashid Khan captained the Gujarat Titans yesterday against the Kolkata Knight Riders. The leg-spinner helped his team gain the upper hand in the contest by dismissing Shardul Thakur, Andre Russell and Sunil Narine off successive deliveries. Still, GT lost the match.
2. Shane Watson took a hat-trick as captain
Shane Watson also took three wickets off three balls in Ahmedabad. It came in the year 2014, when he captained the Rajasthan Royals in a match against the Sunrisers Hyderabad. His three victims were Shikhar Dhawan, Moises Henriques and Karn Sharma.
3. Yuvraj Singh
Hat-tricks in IPL by Captains
— CricBeat (@Cric_beat) April 9, 2023
Yuvraj Singh v RCB (2009)
Yuvraj Singh v DEC (2009)
Shane Watson v SRH (2014)
Rashid Khan v KKR (2023)*#IPL2023
The only Indian player to take a hat-trick is Yuvraj Singh. He took not one but two hat-tricks while captaining the Punjab Kings in the year 2009. Singh became the first skipper to achieve this feat while playing against Royal Challengers Bangalore, where he dismissed Mark Boucher, Robin Uthappa and Jacques Kallis off successive deliveries.
Just 16 days later, Singh achieved the feat against the Deccan Chargers. His three victims in that game were Herschelle Gibbs, Andrew Symonds and Y Venugopal Rao.
