Virat Kohli as ODI captain: A look at some interesting records and numbers

Virat Kohli. File Pic/AFP

Virat Kohli, who is regarded as one of the best batter in the world will no longer be the captain of the Indian ODI team. The 33-year-old was replaced by Rohit Sharma as ODI skipper for the tour of South Africa. On December 8, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced that going forward, Sharma will lead India in ODIs after the T20Is. Earlier, Kohli had stepped down as T20I skipper in September citing immense workload and wanted to concentrate on his batting.

Under Kohli's captaincy, India failed to win any ICC tournaments but were consistently one of the most dominant sides in world cricket. The Indian team lost to Pakistan in the 2017 Champions Trophy final and were defeated by New Zealand in the semi-final at the 2019 World Cup. India also failed to reach the semi-finals in the 2021 T20 World Cup. But, Kohli will go down as India's most successful ODI captain with a win percentage of 70.43 -- the most by an Indian who has led the national side in more than 10 matches.

Overall, Kohli led India in 95 matches and registered 65 victories. Only Mahendra Singh Dhoni (110), Mohammad Azharuddin (90) and Sourav Ganguly (76) have more wins under their belt while captaining India.

Virat Kohli's record as ODI captain:

Matches- 95

Won- 65

Lost- 27

Tie- 1

No result- 2

Kohli also has the third-highest win percentage among captains (minimum 90 matches). He is only behind former Australian captain Ricky Ponting, who leads the tally with 76.14 per cent followed by South Africa's Hansie Cronje (73.70 per cent).

The ex-Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper always believed in leading from the front. As captain, Kohli scored 5,449 runs in 95 matches with 21 hundreds. The Delhi batter also has the best batting average (72.65) as ODI captain (with a minimum of 75 matches) in ODI history. Only, Ponting has scored more hundreds (22) while leading Australia. Kohli has scored 43 ODI tons and only former Indian captain Sachin Tendulkar is ahead of him with 49 ODI centuries.

However, Kohli will continue to lead the Indian team in Test cricket. He is already India's most successful Test captain with 39 wins. And it was under Kohli's leadership, India won a Test series in Australia for the first time (2018-19) in 71 years.

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