India vs England: Kohli plays his 200th international as captain
Indian maestro Virat Kohli is set to take the field in his 200th game as a captain in international cricket. He achieved the milestone in the third ODI against England in Pune. Kohli remains one of the greatest captains in modern-day cricket across all formats. Under him, the Men in Blue have scaled new heights over the years. Here is more.
Third Indian to lead in 200 internationals
It is interesting to note that Kohli has become only the third Indian to captain in 200 or more international matches. He is only behind former captains MS Dhoni (332) and Mohammad Azharuddin (221) on the elite list.
India's most successful Test captain
At 32, Kohli is already India's most successful captain in the ultimate format, Test cricket. Under him, India have won 36 of 60 Tests and lost 14. Meanwhile, 10 of them have resulted in a draw. He broke the record of his predecessor Dhoni in 2019 by registering his 28th win as Test captain. Kohli took over the reigns on the 2014/15 Australian tour.
Toss not going in Kohli's favor!
In the ongoing third ODI, England captain Jos Buttler won the toss and elected to field. His Indian counterpart Kohli has lost another toss in the series. Interestingly, Kohli has now has lost 27 tosses in 35 matches wherein he has captained against England. In this series, Kohli has won only two tosses (12 matches: four Tests, five T20Is and three ODIs).
A look at Kohli's captaincy record (international cricket)
Kohli first captained India in the 2013 West Indies Tri-Nation Series. However, he was awarded with full-time captaincy in 2017. Overall (before the 3rd ODI), Kohli has led India to 129 wins in 199 internationals (Lost: 55, Tied: 1, Draw: 10, NR: 4).
Third-most runs as captain across formats
Kohli's batting graph has bloomed after he became the captain. As of now, he is the third-highest run-scorer among international captains. He owns 12,336 runs as captain at a phenomenal average of 62.61, and is only behind Ricky Ponting (15,440) and Graeme Smith (14,878) on the tally. Kohli also has joint-most hundreds (41) as captain across formats along with Ponting.
