Most successful captain in Cricket: Virat Kohli currently finishes at 8th spot on the list of most successful captains in Cricket history.
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A captaincy career which commenced in the year 2015 with twin centuries in Australia, has finally come to an end as team India’s (now) former skipper Virat Kohli, 33, decides to absolve himself of India’s Test captaincy duty, and thereby completely as skipper in all formats of the game on Saturday.
Kohli’s shocking decision came post a day after India lost its third Test match against South Africa in Cape Town, and with it a wonderful opportunity to win a maiden Test series on South African soil.
KL Rahul is perhaps next in the pecking order for India’s new Test skipper, with Rohit Sharma being handed the ODI and T20I captaincy responsibility last year.
Kohli led team India in a total of 213 matches across all formats. He prevailed in 135 of those, lost 60, tied 3, while drew 11 with a remarkable win percentage of 63.38.
Ravi Shastri and MS Dhoni – two individuals get mentioned by name. https://t.co/Oov6ZdvFLG
— Murali Krishnan (@legaljournalist) January 15, 2022
Most successful captain in Cricket (all formats)
Kohli currently stands at the 8th spot in the list of most successful Cricket captain across all formats of the game.
At the top is Kohli’s captain (in his own words), the legendary Mahendra Singh Dhoni who leads the list with 178 wins across 332 matches as captain of the Indian Cricket team. Placed below him are Australia’s Ricky Ponting (324 matches, 220 wins) and New Zealand’s Stephen Fleming (303 matches, 128 wins).
| Player | Span | Mat | Won | Lost | Tied | Draw |
| MS Dhoni (INDIA) | 2007-2018 | 332 | 178 | 120 | 6 | 15 |
| RT Ponting (AUS/ICC) | 2002-2012 | 324 | 220 | 77 | 2 | 13 |
| SP Fleming (NZ) | 1997-2007 | 303 | 128 | 135 | 2 | 25 |
| GC Smith (Afr/ICC/SA) | 2003-2014 | 286 | 163 | 89 | 1 | 27 |
| AR Border (AUS) | 1984-1994 | 271 | 139 | 89 | 2 | 38 |
| A Ranatunga (SL) | 1988-1999 | 249 | 101 | 114 | 1 | 25 |
| M Azharuddin (INDIA) | 1990-1999 | 221 | 104 | 90 | 2 | 19 |
| V Kohli (INDIA) | 2013-2022 | 213 | 135 | 60 | 3 | 11 |
| SC Ganguly (Asia/INDIA) | 1999-2005 | 196 | 97 | 79 | 0 | 15 |
| EJG Morgan (ENG) | 2011-2021 | 194 | 115 | 66 | 4 | 0 |
Most successful captain in Cricket (Test matches)
As far as solely the Test format is concerned, South Africa’s Graeme Smith leads the chart with 53 Test wins in a total of 109 matches as captain. Placed below him are Australia’s Allan Border (93 matches, 32 wins) and New Zealand’s Stephen Fleming (80 matches, 28 wins).
Virat Kohli, with 40 wins in 68 Tests, is India’s most successful Test captain and 6th overall in the world.
| Player | Span | Mat | Won | Lost | Tied | Draw |
| GC Smith (ICC/SA) | 2003-2014 | 109 | 53 | 29 | 0 | 27 |
| AR Border (AUS) | 1984-1994 | 93 | 32 | 22 | 1 | 38 |
| SP Fleming (NZ) | 1997-2006 | 80 | 28 | 27 | 0 | 25 |
| RT Ponting (AUS) | 2004-2010 | 77 | 48 | 16 | 0 | 13 |
| CH Lloyd (WI) | 1974-1985 | 74 | 36 | 12 | 0 | 26 |
| V Kohli (INDIA) | 2014-2022 | 68 | 40 | 17 | 0 | 11 |
| JE Root (ENG) | 2017-2022 | 61* | 27 | 24 | 0 | 9 |
| MS Dhoni (INDIA) | 2008-2014 | 60 | 27 | 18 | 0 | 15 |
| AN Cook (ENG) | 2010-2016 | 59 | 24 | 22 | 0 | 13 |
| SR Waugh (AUS) | 1999-2004 | 57 | 41 | 9 | 0 | 7 |
