He has hit 19 tons and seven double-centuries since taking over captaincy in December 2014
Bharath Seervi15-Oct-201950 – Number of Tests Virat Kohli has led India in. The Pune Test against South Africa was his 50th as India’s captain. Kohli’s first Test as captain was against Australia in Adelaide in December 2014. He is only the second to lead India in 50 or more Tests and 17th overall.ESPNcricinfo LtdWatch cricket on ESPN+
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30 – Number of wins for Kohli in his first 50 Tests as captain. Only two captains have had more victories at the same stage – 37 for Steve Waugh and 35 for Ricky Ponting. Kohli’s predecessor Dhoni had 26 wins in his first 50 Tests.
18.67 – Percentage of team runs scored by Kohli in his first 50 Tests as captain – the best among all the 17 captains at the point of completing 50 Tests. The next best was Mike Atherton with 16.34% team runs, followed by Allan Border with 16.27% and Ponting with 16.15%. Waugh, who had the best win percentage in his first 50 Tests, had contributed the second-lowest percentage of runs to the team (12.20%), which shows how strong his batting line-up was. Dhoni, meanwhile, had scored 10.53% of team runs, the lowest among the 17 captains.ESPNcricinfo Ltd4956 – Runs for Kohli as captain, the most among all captains in their first 50 Tests. He has made 19 centuries, seven of them doubles and averages nearly 100 runs per Test (99.12). Ponting averaged 92.88 per Test, followed by Alastair Cook with 84.66 and Border 80.88. Under Kohli’s leadership, the next highest run-getter for India is Cheteshwar Pujara (3560), followed by Ajinkya Rahane (2802). R Ashwin has been the best bowler under Kohli, having taken 233 wickets, followed by Ravindra Jadeja (153). Mohammed Shami has been the most successful pacer for India in this period, with 123 wickets to his name.
48.15 – Percentage of away Tests won by India under Kohli’s leadership, which is 13 out of 23 games. Only Waugh (67.86%) and Ponting (54.17%) had won a higher percentage of away Tests in their first 50 Tests as captain. In this period, India have won five Tests in Sri Lanka, four in the Caribbean, two in Australia and one each in England and South Africa. Kohli has captained in 27 away Tests out of his 50. Only Clive Lloyd (34) and Waugh (28) had played more away Tests in their first 50 matches than Kohli.
1 – Number of home Tests lost by Kohli as captain; India were toppled by Australia in Pune in February 2017. Among the 17 men who have captained in at least 50 Tests, Waugh and Ponting are the only ones to have led in just one loss at home. Lloyd and Viv Richards had two defeats each while Dhoni had lost three home Tests in his first 50 games.
