Stats: Milestones Virat Kohli couldn't accomplish as India's captain

Virat Kohli, India’s most successful Test captain , stepped down from the position after leading the team in the longest format of the game for seven glorious years. Kohli was appointed the permanent skipper of the side mid-way during India’s tour of Australia in 2014/15 when MS Dhoni decided to call time on his Test career. The fourth-most successful captain in the history of Test cricket, Kohli won 40 matches out of 68 he led, losing 17 and managing a draw in 11 encounters.

Stepping into Dhoni’s shoes, Kohli took the reins when the Indian team was placed seventh in the ICC Test rankings. Under his captaincy, the team not only regained the top spot in rankings but also remained number one for five consecutive years. With Kohli at the helm, the Asian giants were unbeaten in all the bilateral series played at home.

India remained undefeated in 11 Test series played under the leadership of Virat Kohli. He also led the team to the inaugural ICC World Test Championship final against Kane Williamson’s New Zealand in June 2021. The 33-year-old Kohli recorded Test series victories in Australia, West Indies, and Sri Lanka. He became the first Asian skipper to win a Test series on Australian soil in 2018-19.

While Kohli is the fourth successful Test captain in history, he failed to win a single ICC trophy for his side in all these years. Notably, India hasn’t won a major trophy since the famous 2013 Champions Trophy triumph which came under the stewardship of MS Dhoni in England.

Speaking of the Indian Premier League (IPL), Virat Kohli became the captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2013 and led the franchise for nine seasons without winning a single title. The last few months have been shocking for Virat Kohli fans as the star batter firstly resigned from RCB’s captaincy and then from the T20I captaincy before the start of the T20 World Cup 2021.

He was then stripped off from the ODI captaincy with BCCI deciding to appoint Rohit Sharma as 50-overs skipper, who is also the captain in the shortest international format now. Finally, after losing the Test series in South Africa 2-1 most recently, Virat Kohli gave another shock to the cricketing world by stepping down from the Test captaincy role.

Notably, there were a few other milestones too which King Kohli could have achieved as a skipper had he continued leading the side for coming years. The most triumphant Indian skipper in the longest format of the game finished his captaincy career as the fourth successful leader overall in Tests with 40 wins under his belt.

Graeme Smith tops the chart for 53 Test victories out of 109 games, Australia’s Ricky Ponting is on second for achieving 48 wins out of 77 matches for his side, while another Aussie Steve Waugh occupies the third spot for 41 triumphs out of 57 encounters. Kohli missed the chance of surpassing Waugh’s record with just two victories and finding himself on that third spot.

Most wins as captain in Tests:

Kohli who scored centuries for fun in the past ended with 20 hundred to his name as a Test skipper. The former Proteas captain Graeme Smith yet again tops the list this time for notching up 25 Test tons as a leader. The former India captain Kohli did surpass Ricky Ponting’s tally of 19 Test tons but more six hundred could have taken him on number one in the chart.

Most centuries as captain in Tests:

In terms of scoring runs while leading the side in Test format, again it’s Smith on top with 8659 runs to his name. Australia’s duo of Allan Border and Ponting are on second and third for mustering 6623 and 6542 runs respectively. King Kohli is the fourth-highest run-getter as a captain in Tests with 5864 runs.

Most runs as captain in Tests:

In 50-overs format, the run machine Kohli is on fifth with 5449 runs as captain behind Sri Lanka’s Arjuna Ranatunga who had amassed 5608 runs. Ponting, Dhoni, and Fleming are in the top three for scoring 8497, 6641, and 6295 runs respectively. In the shortest International format, Virat is third with 1570 runs with Aaron Finch and Kane Williamson in the top two for amassing 1724 and 1599 runs respectively.

Most runs as captain in ODIs:

Talking about across formats, Kohli again finished third for accumulating 12883 runs while Smith takes the number one spot for scoring 15440 runs and Ponting number two for 14878 runs.