India tour of Australia 2014-15: Virat Kohli set to become 32nd man to captain India in Tests

Shiamak Unwalla looks at some statistics regarding past Indian captains.

Virat Kohli (above) joins the illustrious company of the likes of the Nawab of Pataudi (both Sr and Jr), Lala Amarnath, Vijay Hazare, Vinoo Mankad, Ajit Wadekar and others © Getty Images

With MS Dhoni being rested from the first Test against Australia, Virat Kohli is set to become the 32nd player to lead India in Test cricket. He joins the illustrious company of the likes of the Nawab of Pataudi (both Sr and Jr), Lala Amarnath, Vijay Hazare, Vinoo Mankad, Ajit Wadekar and others. Shiamak Unwalla looks at some statistics regarding past Indian captains.

Virat Kohli is all set to lead India in Test cricket for the very first time when India take on Australia from December 4, 2014. He will be the 32nd captain of the Indian Test team. Below is a list of all the men to have captained the Indian team in the longest format of the sport.

Name	Tenure	M	W	L	D	T	W/L
CK Nayudu	1932-1934	4	0	3	1	0	0
Maharajkumar of Vizianagram	1936-1936	3	0	2	1	0	0
Nawab of Pataudi Sr	1946-1946	3	0	1	2	0	0
Lala Amarnath	1947-1952	15	2	6	7	0	0.333
Vijay Hazare	1951-1953	14	1	5	8	0	0.2
Vinoo Mankad	1955-1959	6	0	1	5	0	0
Ghulam Ahmed	1955-1959	3	0	2	1	0	0
Polly Umrigar	1955-1958	8	2	2	4	0	1
Hemu Adhikari	1959-1959	1	0	0	1	0	0
Datta Gaekwad	1959-1959	4	0	4	0	0	0
Pankaj Roy	1959-1959	1	0	1	0	0	0
Gulabrai Ramchand	1959-1960	5	1	2	2	0	0.5
Nari Contractor	1960-1962	12	2	2	8	0	1
Nawab of Pataudi Jr	1962-1975	40	9	19	12	0	0.473
Chandu Borde	1967-1967	1	0	1	0	0	0
Ajit Wadekar	1971-1974	16	4	4	8	0	1
Srinivas Venkataraghavan	1974-1979	5	0	2	3	0	0
Sunil Gavaskar	1976-1985	47	9	8	30	0	1.125
Bishan Singh Bedi	1976-1978	22	6	11	5	0	0.545
Gundappa Viswanath	1980-1980	2	0	1	1	0	0
Kapil Dev	1983-1987	34	4	7	22	1	0.571
Dilip Vengsarkar	1987-1989	10	2	5	3	0	0.4
Ravi Shastri	1988-1988	1	1	0	0	0	–
Krishnamachari Srikkanth	1989-1989	4	0	0	4	0	0
Mohammad Azharuddin	1990-1999	47	14	14	19	0	1
Sachin Tendulkar	1996-2000	25	4	9	12	0	0.444
Sourav Ganguly	2000-2005	49	21	13	15	0	1.615
Rahul Dravid	2003-2007	25	8	6	11	0	1.333
Virender Sehwag	2005-2012	4	2	1	1	0	2
Anil Kumble	2007-2008	14	3	5	6	0	0.6
MS Dhoni	2008-2014	58	27	17	14	0	1.588

CK Nayudu was India’s first Test captain, but he led India in just four matches, of which three resulted in losses.
MS Dhoni has led India the most, captaining the country in 58 Tests. Following him are Sourav Ganguly (49), Sunil Gavaskar and Mohammad Azharuddin (47), and Nawab Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi (40).
Dhoni is also India’s most successful Test skipper, with 27 of his 58 Tests resulting in an Indian victory. Following him are Ganguly (21) and Azharuddin (14).
Pataudi Jr also has the ignominy of suffering the most Test defeats (19), but is closely followed by Dhoni (17), who has a good chance of catching up with him. Azharuddin (14), Ganguly (13), and Bishan Singh Bedi (11) are the other captains with more than 10 defeats to their names.
Gavaskar, often criticised for being overly defensive as a captain, has the most draws to his name (30) well clear of Kapil Dev (22), Azharuddin (19), Ganguly (15), Dhoni (14), Pataudi Jr and Sachin Tendulkar (12), and Rahul Dravid (11).
India has tied only one Test, under Kapil Dev. However, India have once drawn a Test with the scores level, under Dhoni.
Ganguly’s win/loss ratio of 1.615 is the best among all Indian captains.
India never won a Test under CK Nayudu, Vizzy, Nawab of Pataudi Sr, Vinoo Mankad, Ghulam Ahmed, Hemu Adhikari, Datta Gaekwad, Pankaj Roy, Chandu Borde, Srinivas Venkatraghavan, Gundappa Viswanath, or Krishnamachari Srikkanth.
Adhikari, Roy, Borde, and Ravi Shastri are the only men to have led India only once in Tests.
Shastri, however, is the only Indian Test captain with a 100 percent win record — albeit having led in just one Test.

(Shiamak Unwalla, a reporter with CricketCountry, is a self-confessed Sci-Fi geek and Cricket fanatic. You can follow him on Twitter @ShiamakUnwalla)