In cricket, a captain is a player who leads the team and has additional roles and responsibilities. The Indian Premier League (IPL) is a professional league for Twenty20 cricket in India, which has been held annually since its first edition in 2008.
In the 18 seasons played till 2025, 72 players have captained their team in at least one match. Mumbai Indians' Rohit Sharma and Chennai Super Kings's MS Dhoni are the most successful captains with five IPL titles each. Dhoni also holds the records for most matches (229) and most wins (134) as a captain. Shreyas Iyer, Mahela Jayawardene, Ajinkya Rahane, Kumar Sangakkara, and Steven Smith are the only players to have captained three different teams, with Iyer being the only captain to have led three different sides to the finals of the IPL. Kolkata Knight Riders is the only team to have won IPL with different captains.
The list includes those players who have captained an IPL team in at least one IPL match. The list is organised by the number of matches as a captain and if the numbers are tied, the list is sorted by the date of first match as captain.
denotes players who captained their sides in the 2026 season.