Virat Kohli captaincy lasted from 2014 to 2022. He announced that he will be stepping down as India’s T20I captain after the T20 World Cup in 2021 while the ODI captaincy saga soon after that is no more a secret now. Virat Kohli captaincy ended in 2022 after India’s South Africa tour where the team lost the three-match Test series 2-1 despite winning the first Test match.
Virat Kohli captaincy: Record in Test Cricket
| Virat Kohli in Tests | |
| Number of matches captained | 68 |
| Date of the last match as captain | 11 January 2022 |
| Matches won at home | 24 |
| Matches won away from home | 15 |
| Matches lost | 16 |
| Win rate | 58.82% |
Virat Kohli is one of the most successful Test captains in world cricket. Undoubtedly, he ended his Test captaincy stint as the best ever captain of India statistically. Here are some of the records he created during his stint as India’s Test captain.
Virat Kohli led India in Test cricket in 68 matches. These are the most matches for any Indian captain ever in the longest format. He surpassed MS Dhoni during this period who led India in 60 Tests.
Virat Kohli won 40 Test matches as India’s Test captain which makes him the most successful for India. His success percentage of 58.8% is the best for an Indian captain in red-ball cricket. The next best is MS Dhoni under whom India won 27 Test matches.
Virat Kohli has an average of a staggering 55.36 with the bat while he was India’s Test captain. The man from Delhi amassed a whopping 5703 runs while at the helm for India in whites.
Virat Kohli recorded most Test wins at home as captain. India won as many as 24 Test matches while he was at the helm breaking MS Dhoni’s record who won 21 Test matches at home as captain.
Virat Kohli scored a whopping 20 Test centuries as captain. These are the second most centuries while leading a team with only Graeme Smith scoring more tons as South Africa’s Test captain. The South African batter smashed 25 tons while being at the helm.
Virat Kohli scored seven double centuries in his Test career, all came when he was the Test captain of India. These are the most for any captain in the history of Test cricket.
Virat Kohli captaincy: ODI Records
| ODI | |
| Number of matches captained | 95 |
| Date of the last match as captain | 28 March 2021 |
| Matches won at home | 24 |
| Matches won away from home | 29 |
| Matches won on neutral ground | 12 |
| Matches lost | 27 |
| Win rate | 68.42% |
Virat Kohli led India in 95 ODIs and ended up winning a staggering 65 matches in the 50-over format. India lost 27 matches under his captaincy while 3 matches ended either in No Result or were tied.
Having led India to 65 wins in ODI cricket, Virat Kohli is India’s fourth most successful captain in the format. The likes of MS Dhoni, Sourav Ganguly and Mohammed Azharuddin are ahead of him.
Virat Kohli scored 5549 runs in ODI cricket as India’s captain. These are the second most runs for an Indian captain in the format after MS Dhoni who scored 6641 runs in 200 ODIs he captained the team.
Virat Kohli scored 21 ODI centuries as India captain. These are the most for an Indian cricketer while he is only behind Ricky Ponting who scored 22 tons as Australia’s ODI captain.
Virat Kohli averaged a whopping 72.65 with the bat as India’s ODI captain.
Despite these amazing numbers, Virat Kohli couldn’t lead India to a World Cup trophy in 2019. India bowed out of the tournament in the semi-final after a close and heartbreaking loss to New Zealand.
Virat Kohli Captaincy: Records in the T20Is
| T20I | |
| Number of matches captained | 50 |
| Date of the last match as captain | 8 November 2021 |
| Matches won at home | 13 |
| Matches won away from home | 14 |
| Matches won on neutral ground | 3 |
| Matches lost | 16 |
| Win rate | 64.58% |
Virat Kohli led India in 50 T20Is winning as many as 30 matches and losing 16 matches.
Virat Kohli scored 1570 runs as India’s T20I captain. These are the most runs for an Indian captain while Kohli stands fourth among captains with most runs in T20Is.
Virat Kohli is the second most successful captain for India in T20Is with 30 wins. MS Dhoni is the most successful with 42 wins in the format.
Virat Kohli took only 30 innings to complete 1000 runs as T20I captain. This is the quickest for any T20I captain in the world.
Virat Kohli is the only Indian captain to win T20I series in SENA nations. India won 5-0 in New Zealand in 2020, 2-1 in Australia in 2020, and 2-1 in England and South Africa in 2018.
Like it happened in ODIs, Virat Kohli’s captaincy tenure in T20Is didn’t end on a good note. His last match as India’s T20I captain was in the T20 World Cup. India couldn’t go beyond the Super 12 stage in the tournament after shockingly losing to Pakistan and New Zealand in their first two matches.
Virat Kohli leading in the IPL
| Number of matches captained | 140 |
| Matches Won | 64 |
| Matches Lost | 69 |
| No Result | 7 |
| Win Percentage | 45.71% |
Virat Kohli dominated international cricket as India captain but he couldn’t enjoy similar success as the captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Virat Kohli led RCB in 140 matches and could win 64 matches while he lost 69.
However, Kohli leading his franchise in 140 matches is the second highest for any captain in the IPL history. Only MS Dhoni is ahead of him who is still the captain of CSK.
Virat Kohli first led RCB at the age of 22 years to become the youngest captain in the history of IPL.
Virat Kohli couldn’t win a single IPL trophy for RCB as captain in 8 IPL seasons.
Virat Kohli dominated with the bat when he was the RCB captain, also taking the team to the final in IPL 2016 smashing four centuries in a single season. But the team couldn’t pass the final hurdle losing to the David Warner-led Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Kohli’s removal from captaincy duties
Virat Kohli’s removal from captaincy duties was quite a controversial episode in Indian cricket. First, he announced to step down from T20I captaincy after T20 World Cup just before the mega event. Many were shocked to know about the same. His tenure as T20 captain didn’t end on a good note as India couldn’t make it to the semi-finals of the tournament.
Virat Kohli was then soon relieved of ODI captaincy controversially as selectors wanted one captain across both white-ball formats. So, Rohit Sharma was named India’s T20I and ODI captain.
Virat Kohli is celebrated as India’s Test captain having led the side from 2014 to 2022. He stepped down from the position in 2022 and Rohit Sharma became India’s all-format captain in February 2022.
Virat Kohli captaincy vs MS Dhoni
While there can be no comparison with MS Dhoni when it comes to captaincy, Virat Kohli did leapfrog him at times in terms of statistics as India’s captain. First and foremost, MS Dhoni managed to win three ICC trophies – T20 World Cup, ODI World Cup and Champions Trophy – for India as captain. On the other hand, Virat Kohli led India in two ICC events only for the team to bow out in semis and in group stage of the 2019 and 2021 events respectively.
However, when it comes to Test cricket, Virat Kohli turned out to be better than MS Dhoni. Kohli won 40 out of 68 Test matches as captain while Dhoni could only win 27 games after leading India in 60 Tests.
In T20Is and ODIs, MS Dhoni was the master winning 42 and 74 matches respectively as India captain in 72 and 200 matches in respective formats. On the other hand, Virat Kohli was also brilliant in ODIs winning 65 out of 95 matches as captain. In T20Is too he was great leading India to 30 wins in 50 captains. But alas, an ICC trophy eluded him, unlike MS Dhoni.
Both MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli were great captains for India across the formats but the former will always be called the greatest thanks to him winning the major ICC trophies for the Men in Blue.
FAQs
Virat Kohli captaincy record for India
Virat Kohli led India in 213 matches across formats and won 135 of them. His success rate as India captain is one of the best in the history of the sport.
Virat Kohli win percentage as Test captain
Virat Kohli’s win percentage as India’s Test captain was 58.8%.
Virat Kohli captaincy record against Pakistan
Virat Kohli won two out of five matches as captain against Pakistan in 4 ODIs and 1 T20I.
