I believe that greatness is achieved when an individual does unbelievable things so often, that we begin to expect unbelievable things from them every time they perform. Using this given metric, I can quite strongly affirm that Virat Kohli was the greatest Test Captain that India has ever seen.
Kohli took over the reins from MS Dhoni, India’s legendary white ball captain who is somewhat of a messiah in the country. This meant that from the day he became a Test captain in 2014, Kohli had enormous boots to fill. And boy, how he filled them. He proceeded to score a scintillating 115 in India’s first innings in his Test Captaincy debut against a fiery Australian bowling attack.
Kohli leads the way with the most Test wins by an Indian captain. He has the most wins at home and away and has the best win-loss record. There are two main reasons why Kohli has been as good as he has been as India’s leader in the red-ball format.
Firstly, he changed India from a side that played it safe by drawing the match to a side that fearlessly looked for the win at every opportunity. This change in mentality has reflected in the numbers that the bowling attack under Kohli’s reign has produced, which averaged just 25.34. This is the second best bowling average among all 28 captains who have captained their side in at least 40 Tests. Bowlers like Mohammed Siraj and Shardul Thakur embody the spirit of Kohli’s philosophy by bringing energy and passion into the team and grabbing opportunities with both hands.
Under Kohli, India bagged 20 wickets in a Test match a staggering 28 times. 13 of these happened in overseas conditions. Moreover, 23 of those 28 matches were won by India. The 2nd Test in India’s Tour of England 2021 is the best example of India risking a loss to attempt the outrageous, and then succeed in their attempt. For comparison, under Dhoni, India managed to bag 20 wickets only 16 times. Another stat which throws light on the bowling attack under Kohli is that 6 bowlers have taken 100+ wickets during his tenure at the helm. This shows the kind of impact that Kohli has had on his bowlers while he was captain.
The other reason that Kohli was as marvellous a Test captain as he was is the importance he gave to fitness. He set a platinum standard for fitness in the Indian cricket team which forced the rest of the team to start hitting the gym. Kohli has kept himself in optimal playing shape and that is the reason he has been able to avoid major injuries in his career. This has allowed him to contribute to the team as one of the best fielders in the world, on top of his batting.
Kohli has had an illustrious run at the top of the best Test team in the world. I would like to end this look into his impact on the team with a quote of his from 2019, which really sums up the way he approached his captaincy.
“Captaincy is just a ‘c’ in front of your name, honestly.”
Image : Screenshot from YouTube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4OlMqUi0P4)
