Cricket is one of the popular and most followed sports in India that is enjoyed by billions of people in the country. In India, this sport is treated as a festival and cricketers are no less than celebrities. However, despite all the pomp and show, cricket is still a sport like any other, and the players have to play to maintain goodwill in the eyes of the public.
The captain’s role in cricket is important, and the management is careful in selecting the correct captain for the team. Several players have captained the Indian Men’s cricket team. Some captained the national team in all the formats: one-day international, test and Twenty20, whereas others had a shared captaincy with other players.
How Many Captains Have Led the Indian Cricket Team in ICC Finals
The Indian cricket team has not won any ICC tournament. This team was once considered as the strongest in the world, but has been struggling with winning tournaments after the 2007 T20 World Cup, 2011 ODI World Cup, and 2013 Champions Trophy.
Since the retirement of MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan have commanded the men’s cricket team. Currently, Rohit Sharma is the captain of the Indian cricket team in Test, ODI and T20 format. He emerged as the fifth Indian to captain the national team in an ICC (International Cricket Council) competition after leading the team in the 2023 World Test Championship Final. Let us take a look at the most successful captain in India.
1. MS Dhoni – 332 Matches
Mahendra Singh Dhoni stands third in most successful captains having a win ratio of 53.61. The only one captain to be three-time winner of ICC Trophies – T20 World Cup 2007, ODI World Cup 2011 and Champions Trophy 2013, MS Dhoni has been rated India and the world’s best white-ball captain. Apart from these three elusive ICC Trophies, India also became winner of five other multi-nation series as Dhoni was captain.
In Test cricket, Dhoni is India’s second-most successful captain behind Kohli, guiding the team to 27 victories in 60 matches. India topped ICC Test rankings in 2009 under Dhoni, who became the first Indian captain to whitewash an Australian team in 2013.
In ODIs, Dhoni took India to 110 victories in 200 matches, the highest among any Indian captain. In the World Cup, Dhoni took India to 14 victories, the highest by any Indian captain. The only two ICC World Cup games India lost under Dhoni were the 2011 game against South Africa and the 2015 semi-final against Australia.
Coming to his T20I records, Dhoni has 41 wins in 72 games – the most by any Indian captain in the format. Dhoni’s incredible leadership in the inaugural edition of the 2007 T20 World Cup led to the birth of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2008 and a revolution of sorts in Indian T20 cricket.
2. Rohit Sharma – 126 Matches
The present Indian Test and ODI team captain Rohit Sharma assumed charge after Virat Kohli resigned. Right since joining, Rohit has transformed the face of Indian cricket. Besides winning many bilateral series, Rohit Sharma led India in the T20 World Cup hosted by the International Cricket Council in 2024. They went on to win the tournament as India achieved success at an international tournament for the first time in over a decade.
Rohit has captained India in 126 games in all formats and has won 93 and lost only 28 games. That is a whopping win rate of 73.8. He stepped down as T20I captain when India won the World Cup but continues to lead the team in ODIs and Tests. He has been the best cricket captain of India so far. Rohit Sharma became only the second captain from his India to win two ICC trophies after MS Dhoni.
3. Virat Kohli – 213 Matches
Although never lifted an ICC trophy, Virat Kohli is among India’s most successful captains, with a combined win rate of 63.38. The 65 victories out of 95 ODIs, 30 out of 50 T20Is and 39 out of 66 Tests under the belligerent captain India experienced. With 39 victories out of Test matches, Kohli is India’s best Test skipper. Next to Kohli is MS Dhoni, who has 27 Test captaincy victories. He took over the captaincy from MS Dhoni in 2014, when the team ranked seventh in the ICC Test rankings. When Kohli announced his retirement, India was at the top of the rankings. Team India has never lost a Test series on home soil (11 wins in 11 Tests) under their most successful Test skipper. Kohli has also recorded the most Test centuries for India as captain (20) and is otherwise only behind Graeme Smith (25).
Kohli is the fourth most successful Indian ODI captain of all time behind the likes of MS Dhoni, Sourav Ganguly, and Mohammed Azharuddin in ODIs. Kohli as a captain of India won the bilateral ODI series in Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, South Africa, West Indies and Zimbabwe. Kohli, as a batting captain, aggregated 5449 runs in 91 innings with an average of 72.65, with 21 tons. No other captain has as many ODI centuries as Ricky Ponting (22) or Kohli.
Kohli is India’s team’s second most successful captain, with 30 wins. Virat Kohli is the only Indian captain to win a T20I bilateral series in all SENA nations and also holds the record for scoring the fastest 1000 T20I runs as a captain.
4. Sourav Ganguly – 195 Matches
Fourth on the ranking is Sourav Ganguly at 49.74 win percentage. The Indian team played with fearlessness while under Ganguly and won some of the matches overseas. Ganguly has the second-best overseas captaincy record in India. Kohli heads the list at 29 victories abroad, while Ganguly ranks second at 28.
Ganguly led India in 49 Tests of which he has won 21, lost 13 and tied 15. His victory percentage stands at 42.85. Till date, Ganguly is the lone Indian captain to have won a Test series in Pakistan. This was done by winning the last Test of the series against Pakistan during 2003-2004 by an innings and 131 runs at Rawalpindi.
India under Ganguly remained runners-up of the World Cup 2003 in ODIs, prior to which they defeated England in Natwest Trophy’s final in 2002. India won a total of 76 out of 146 ODIs under the southpaw, while India lost 65. Ganguly made 11 ODI hundreds as India captain, which is the fourth-highest in the world. Ganguly is also the lone captain to have made three centuries in a World Cup edition (2003) and three centuries in the Champions Trophy (2004).
5. Rahul Dravid – 104 Matches
Even though Rahul Dravid tenure as captain was not very long, it did have its ups. Dravid captained India in 104 games and emerged victorious 48.07% of the time. Dravid was made captain when the team was in a state of chaos – there was discord between Greg Chappell and Ganguly before the latter being finally stripped of the captaincy.
He captained India in 25 Tests between 2003-2007, winning eight and losing six. One of the highlights of Dravid’s Test captaincy is winning the 2006 Test series in the West Indies. India had not won a Test series in the Caribbean since 1971. India struggled to win the fourth Test after the first three Tests were drawn. Dravid scored 81 and 68 in the decider of the series and was also the series’ highest run-scorer with 497 runs. Success in the 2007 Test series in England was another of Dravid’s high points as a captain.
Dravid led India to 42 victories out of 79 matches in ODIs, which is the fifth-best record among Indian captains. The nadir of his ODI captaincy career came in 2007 when India exited the World Cup in the group stage itself. India were runners-up in the last edition of the tournament and was supposed to do a much better job than they actually did.
6. Mohammed Azharuddin – 221 Matches
The sixth-most successful Indian captain overall is Mohammed Azharuddin, with a win rate of 47.05 in 221 matches. Azharuddin captained India in 47 Tests, winning 14 and losing 14. His overseas Test captaincy record was extremely poor – India won 13 of their 14 Tests victories under Azharuddin at home. Even though his captaincy was questioned, Azharuddin was a prolific run-scorer when he was the captain. He made 2856 runs at a nearly 44 average, including nine hundreds, five of which were overseas.
In ODIs, he led India to 90 wins in 174 ODIs. He was the highest run-scorer in ODI cricket at the time of retirement (9378 runs).
7. Kapil Dev – 108 Matches
Kapil Dev took India to their first ODI World Cup title in 1983 and is arguably the most important name on this list. Overall, he led India in 108 games and boasts a win ratio of 39.81
Also Read:
- Rohit Sharma vs MS Dhoni: Who is the Best ODI Captain?
- India vs Pakistan Cricket Rivalry, Records, Head to Head And Stats
- List of Fastest Centuries in T20 International Cricket
- List of Top 10 Batsmen With Most Runs in Test Cricket
FAQs
Ans- MS Dhoni is the most successful captain in India ODI.
Ans- Rohit Sharma became only the second captain from his country to win two ICC trophies.
Ans- Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni have been the most successful Indian T20 captains in history. Dhoni’s track record includes clinching the inaugural T20 World Cup title in 2007.
Ans- Virat Kohli is considered as the most successful test captain.
