Virat Kohli goes past MS Dhoni in T20 captaincy record

Virat Kohli has achieved a great milestone for being second in the list of captains who have led their side for the most successive Twenty20 matches.

Kohli has led his side, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in 63 successive matches going past MS Dhoni’s record of leading his Chennai Super Kings (CSK) side for 61 matches. Gautam Gambhir leads the list with 87 successive appearances for his side Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).

Dhoni is the only captain to feature twice in the list. He had broken his tally of 59 successive matches as captain for Chennai Super Kings and in the second run, he was at 61 matches at the end of IPL 2015, after which his team was banned. Now, Dhoni is leading the new IPL franchise, Rising Pune Supergiants (RPS).

Virat Kohli currently has marked 63 consecutive matches as captain after the match against Gujarat Lions (GL) in the 44th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL), in which Kohli and his teammate AB de Villiers scored hundreds to help their side register the biggest win in IPL history and also to remain in contention to qualify for the playoffs.

Royal Challengers have three more matches left in the tournament and they will have to win all of those to qualify for the playoffs. Kolkata had almost qualified for the playoffs and thus Gambhir could easily extend the lead in this record with Virat.

Here is the list of top five captains with most successive matches as captain for a Twenty20 team:

*Indicates ongoing run. Since Chennai Super Kings is likely to be back in IPL 2018, MS Dhoni could still continue to lead them and chase this record set by Virat Kohli.

Also read – Stats: Virat Kohli becomes the first player to score 3 tons in a single edition of IPL