Captain Virat Kohli's brilliant numbers as skipper continue to soar

Virat Kohli led Indian team beat South Africa comprehensively and took a 1-0 lead in the three-match test series. This was Kohli's 29th test win as a captain out of the 49 games he has captained the team. Kohli's win percentage of 59.16 is the best among all the Indian captains. In the recently concluded series against the West Indies, Kohli became the most successful Indian Test captain ever. He went past former skipper MS Dhoni's record of 28 Test wins. Kohli is now on top of a coveted list which consists of the veterans such as Sourav Ganguly, Kapil Dev, Mohammad Azharuddin and Sunil Gavaskar among others. The question that looms now is that 'Is he the best captain in India's cricketing history'?

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 Well, his unbelievable numbers are a testimony to his prowess as a captain. Kohli is the only Indian captain to have a win-rate in excess of 50 percent in Tests among all the captains with minimum 30 Tests.

Here is a proof of his marvellous captaincy record:

• Virat Kohli: 49(m), 29(w), 10(l), 10(d)
• MS Dhoni: 60(m), 27(w), 18(l), 15(d)
• Sourav Ganguly: 49(m), 21(w), 13(l), 15(d)
• Mohammad Azharuddin: 47(m), 14(w), 14(l), 19(d)

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• m - matches as captain
• w - won
• l - lost
• d - draw

Under Kohli, Indian fast bowlers have been lethal and have become a force to reckon with, whereas the way in which Kohli has rotated his spinners according to the conditions has helped massively to the team. His ability to always give credit to the team and celebrating others' success has further impacted the environment in the dressing room positively.

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Kohli has never shied away from experimenting and has always gone forward with his instincts irresespective of the criticism. For instance, choosing Rohit Sharma over Ajinkya Rahane for the first two Tests of the South Africa tour in 2017 and then reversing his decision for the last game was not expected out of the skipper. Whether it was dropping Cheteshwar Pujara on the West Indies tour of 2016 for his 'strike-rate' or playing two spinners on a rain-soaked surface at Lord's in 2017, Kohli's decisions have been baffling time and again over the years yet effective.

Kohli's next captaincy test will be against South Africa in the second Test. India go into the match as favourites and Kohli will want to clinch the series and add one more series win under his belt.

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