Virat Kohli — One of the Finest Captain of All Time
A spunky, chubby teenager with gelled hair shot to fame after leading India to glory in the Under-19 World Cup at Kuala Lumpur in early 2008. In an Indian team filled with saint-like icons worthy of their own hagiographies, Virat Kohli, with his most un-Indian, ‘bad-boy’ intensity, would clearly be an outcast. From being a leader since his debut Virat in the Under-19 World Cup Virat Kohli started his journey as a captain quite early than many other players of his generation. This blog is specially dedicated to his contribution as a captain to Indian Cricket and his Fans.
Start of journey as Captain: —
- 2008 Under-19 World Cup- Won the World Cup.
- Was made Vice-Captain of the Indian team in 2012.
- Made the captain of Royal Challengers Banglore in 2013.
- Took over the captaincy of Test cricket from Mahendra Singh Dhoni after he retired from tests in 2015.
- Was made the captain of all formats in 2017 when MS Dhoni decided to leave captaincy.
Between 2013 and 2022, Kohli captained the India cricket team in more than 200 matches across all three formats.
Major Achievements as Indian Captain:-
a. Virat Kohli was the most successful Indian Test Captain who has a lot of records as a test captain in 7 years span. Some of them are:
- Matches: 68, Won: 40, Lost: 16, Draw: 17, Wins Home: 24, Wins Away: 15
- Most Double Hundreds in Test matches as a Skipper.
- First Indian Captain to win a Test series in Australia.
- The first captain to win a Test series in Sri Lanka [2–1 & 3–0 in 2013 & 2015].
- First Asian skipper to breach the Aussie barrier, 2018–19.
- First Indian captain to win 2 matches in SENA country.
- Virat Kohli led India to a 2–1 series lead against England on their turf.
- Kohli also holds the record for scoring most Test runs for India as captain. In 66 Tests so far, Virat has scored 5703 runs at an average of 55.36 including a highest score of 254* against South Africa.
- 20– Kohli has scored most Test centuries for India as captain. With 20 centuries since being an Indian Test skipper, Kohli is only behind Graeme Smith (25) with most Test hundreds as captain. In the last couple of years, Virat has failed to add to his tally of Test centuries. His last Test ton came against Bangladesh in India’s first-ever Pink-Ball Test in 2019.
- Took India from 7th position in test cricket to 1st position for a span of more than 4 years.
b. Although England secured its place as the world champions, the Indian team was named as the best traveling team for a staggering five consecutive years under the captaincy of Virat Kohli in One Day International. This means that it was the most consistent unit. Throughout 2019, India won several ODI series against West Indies, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand with Kohli as captain. In total, India had 25 wins and 13 losses in this period out of 40 matches which put it before England and South Africa.
- Matches: 95, Won: 65, Lost: 27, NR/Tied: 3
- Kohli was the first Indian captain to win an ODI series in South Africa
- Kohli led the Indian team to victory in New Zealand after a decade
- ODI World Cup semi-final (2019)
- Bilateral ODI series win in Australia, 2019:
- Virat has the second most runs as Indian ODI skipper (5449 runs) after MS Dhoni. Dhoni registered a tally of 6641 runs ODI runs in 200 matches as captain for India.
- He has scored the most number of ODI centuries by an Indian captain. Kohli is only behind Ricky Ponting, who scored 22 centuries during his tenure as captain of Australia.
c. Virat Kohli has led India in 50 matches winning 30 and losing 16 while 4 matches have ended in no results and two have been tied in T20 internationals:
- Kohli scored the most T20I runs by an Indian skipper. With 1570 T20I runs, Virat is ranked fourth among captains with the most runs in T20Is
- He is the second most successful T20I captain of India with 30 wins. MS Dhoni has secured the most T20I wins (42) as Indian captain.
- Kohli also holds the record for scoring the quickest 1000 T20I runs as captain. He took a mere 30 innings to claim the milestone, which happens to be an inning quicker than South Africa’s Faf du Plessis.
- Only Indian skipper to win T20I bilateral series in all SENA nations. Under him, India won 5–0 in New Zealand in 2020, 2–1 in Australia 2020, 2–1 in England in 2018, and 2–1 in South Africa in 2018
- With 30 T20I wins, Kohli is ranked fourth among most T20I wins as Captain. He’s only behind Asghar Afghan, MS Dhoni, and Eoin Morgan among T20I captains.
d. Kohli as a captain in IPL:-
- Matches: 140, Won: 64, Lost: 69, NR: 7
- Kohli led RCB in 140 IPL matches which is the second-highest for any captain in the IPL. He is only behind MS Dhoni in terms of matches played as a captain in the IPL.
- Virat has scored the most runs in IPL history as captain.
- At the age of 22 years, Kohli became the youngest player to captain an IPL side. In IPL 2011, in the absence of Daniel Vettori, Kohli captained RCB for three matches to hold the record for youngest captain in IPL history.
e. Virat Kohli Captaincy record across all formats in International Cricket
- Matches: 213, Won: 135, Lost: 60, Draw/NR/Tie: 18
While Kohli’s captaincy career has come to a close, it will allow him to focus primarily on his form, batting, and achieve the feats he wants to. It will be crucial for him to regain his lost form. Kohli’s record as captain of India has been impeccable. Except for falling short in the ICC events, Kohli has taken Indian cricket to greater heights.
His biggest contribution to Indian cricket remains his passion to win away from home, especially in Test cricket. Kohli has often been criticized for his team selections but he has continued to be bullish about his calls. He has instilled a level of self-belief in his team and has led from the front on all parameters as a true leader.
This news has particularly made me a bit sad being a Kohli fan. Now let's support Virat Kohli to regain his form back and see our run machine breaking new records.
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