3 Virat Kohli's captaincy records Rohit Sharma will not be able to break

Rohit Sharma succeeded Virat Kohli as India’s all-format captain earlier this year after the latter decided to relinquish his captaincy tenure post a 1-2 series loss against South Africa in January. Meanwhile, India under Rohit have been doing a phenomenal job in T20Is ever since he took over the reins from Kohli after the conclusion of the T20 World Cup 2021 in November. It is to be noted that the Men in Blue have not lost a single bilateral series in the shortest format in the last nine months.

Rohit Sharma’s captaincy tenure might have turned out to be a super hit in white-ball cricket for now with India also remaining undefeated in the last three ODI series (home and away bilateral series against the West Indies and away series against England). However, he is yet to prove his mettle as a Test skipper, especially in overseas conditions. Without further ado, here’s a look at the three captaincy records of Virat Kohli that Rohit Sharma might fail to break.

3 Virat Kohli’s captaincy records Rohit Sharma will not be able to break

1. Most Test matches as Indian captain

Rohit Sharma made his international debut way back in 2007 and went on to become one of India’s and world cricket’s finest white-ball batters of this generation over the years. However, he has not attained the same level of fame and fortune in the longest format and it was only after his maiden Test century against South Africa during the home series in October 2019 that his red-ball career eventually took off.

Virat Kohli on the other hand captained India for the very first time in Test cricket in 2014 and made 68 appearances in this format thus, holding the record for most Test matches as Indian captain. However, it did take Virat eight years to play that many games which made it possible for him to make that record in the first place.

Therefore, this feat is impossible for Rohit to achieve as he is already 34 and might bid adieu to at least one of the formats going forward. In fact, it could even be Test cricket in order to prolong his white-ball career.

2. Most Test double centuries as Indian captain

As of now, the ‘Hitman’ has only managed to score a solitary Test double century and he hopefully has 2-3 more years of cricket left in this format in order to increase the tally. Nonetheless, that is not going to be easy in any manner as scoring double tons in the longest format is no mean feat.

Meanwhile, Rohit’s predecessor Virat Kohli achieved the milestone of scoring seven Test centuries as Indian captain between 2016 to 2019. In fact, six of those were scored in just over a year. It came at a time when the batting megastar was going through a purple patch where he scored runs for fun across formats in international cricket.

Virat scored his red-ball double centuries against West Indies (July 2016), New Zealand (October 2016), England (December 2016), Bangladesh (February 2017), Sri Lanka (November 2017), Sri Lanka (December 2017), and South Africa (October 2019).

3. Most ODI runs as Indian captain

Rohit Sharma has registered a record three double centuries in One Day Internationals and has registered the highest individual score in ODIs- 264. Both records remain unbroken to date and the ‘Hitman’ will definitely go down as one of the best batters in the 50-overs format of all time.

However, it is an extremely difficult task for Sharma to score the most ODI runs as Indian captain. Despite being a consistent batter across formats, it took Virat Kohli 95 matches as skipper to amass 5449 runs in the 50-overs format averaging 2.65.

Therefore, this would remain an impossible feat for Rohit Sharma to achieve as India’s One Day captain, and taking his age factor and fitness concerns into consideration, it might well be a far-fetched dream for him.