Kingston: Virat Kohli has surpassed Mahendra Singh Dhoni to become India’s most successful Test skipper after the team recorded its 28th win under his leadership, a 257-run hammering of the West Indies here.
The 28 wins have come from 48 matches for Kohli as captain. His predecessor Dhoni led India to 27 wins from 60 Test matches during his tenure. ‘Captaincy is just a C in front of your name. It’s the collective effort that matters. It’s a by-product of the quality team we have here,’ Kohli said on the newest record against his name.
‘If you see these guys running in — (Mohammed) Shami, (Jasprit) Bumrah after having a small niggle, Ishant (Sharma) bowling his heart out, (Ravindra) Jadeja bowling a long spell. If we didn’t have the bowlers we have, these results wouldn’t have been possible,’ he added.
Sourav Ganguly and Mohammad Azharuddin are third and fourth in the list of successful Indian Test skippers with 21 and 14 wins respectively. Overall, former South Africa skipper Graeme Smith remains the most successful skipper in the world with 53 Test wins, followed by ex-Australia captain Ricky Ponting, who recorded 48 Test wins in his captaincy tenure.
India have made a superb start to the World Test Championship and the win in the second match not only helped them sweep the series 2-0 but also put them on top of the championship points table. With 120 points from two games, India lead the nine-team table even though Pakistan, Bangladesh and South Africa are yet to begin their bilateral campaigns in the championship.
Under Kohli, India have achieved some memorable victories in both India and abroad. Earlier this year, India clinched their maiden Test series in Australia, beating the hosts 2-1 in their own backyard. In the match here, India entered the fourth day needing eight wickets to win and Kohli’s men completed the task after lunch, dismissing the hosts for 210 in 59.5 overs in their chase of a near-impossible target of 468.
The bowling quartet of Ishant Sharma (2/37 in 12 overs), Mohammed Shami (3/65 in 16 overs), Jasprit Bumrah (1/31 in 11 overs) and lone spinner Ravindra Jadeja (3/58 in 16.5 overs) were relentless in their pursuit of keeping the home team batsmen on a tight leash. Such was India’s dominance in the two Tests that West Indies couldn’t even cross 250 in any of their four innings and the only half-century was scored by Shamarh Brooks (50) in this game. It was one of the most satisfying tours for skipper Kohli as his team claimed dominating triumphs in all three formats (3-0 in T20Is, 2-0 in ODIs, and 2-0 in Tests).