Is Virat Kohli the greatest Indian test captain ever?

[sarcastic]

Now, I have my doubts calling Virat the greatest Indian test captain too. 
The team choked big time under his captaincy!

[sarcastic]

BUMP!

Is he?

 

He is making stronger and stronger case day by day!

[kirkutfan]

 Definitely. 38 wins, 16 losses and 11 draws, not a joke.  And, strong backbone by sticking to his approach even if unpopular. Whether it is his 5 bowler, 4 pacer strategy or his aggressive conduct. He deserves the credit, esp. considering that he would have been in the doghouse if his team lost. 

[sarcastic]

Time to revisit this thread.

He may be hailed as the greatest captain in test format but that is certainly not true in LOI cricket.

He should hang his boots as captain in LOI formats and focus on tests alone. 

He is certainly in the league of greatest ever captains for any team when it comes to tests.

But such a disappointing end to his LOI captaincy tomorrow. 

[zen]

Notes

 

• Captaincy is not judged based on number of test wins and W/L ratio alone (Under Ranatunga, rated as one of the best SL captains, SL won 12 tests and lost 19)
• Batsmen are not judged based on number of runs alone (Chandrapaul has more runs than Viv Richards)
• Bowlers are judged based on number of wickets alone (Kapil Dev has more wickets than Malcolm Marshall)
• A country is not judged based on GDP alone (Pakistan has a higher GDP than Czech, Portugal, New Zealand, Greece, Qatar, & Kuwait)
• and so on 

Edited November 8, 2021 by zen

[addicted4444]

How can anyone call him the greatest test captain after the last Australian series is beyond me. 
 

The series perfectly encapsulated how much better the Indian talent is relative to ever before (especially in the fast bowling dept, which has little to do with Kohli and everything to do with the IPL) and also how much Kohli isn’t just a benefit, but actually detracts from the team with his captaincy. 
 

It was a series where under Kohli’s captaincy the team got thrashed, whereas the moment he was gone, under Rahane, a far weaker team was able to win a series against Australia in Australia (without having the benefit of their 2 best players and captain/vice captain having been just suspended) including a win at the Gabba. 

[RajBan]

Kohli has thoroughly underachieved as a Test captain. That South Africa series loss was entirely on him for wrong selections and wrong decisions. That's just one example. If Kohli would have played in 90s and 2000s where there were 5-6 really good Test teams with great captains, he would have been a grand failure. The way he has selected wrong bowlers for formats again and again, I believe his wins in Tests is more due to our in general better bowling resources in recent years than anything to do with acumen. With that said he did well initial few years and is definitely a better Test captain than Dhoni but then the latter had a woefully low standard when it comes to the longest format.

[afan]

Technically Ganguly had the better team in terms of batting, and maybe in terms of bowling he had a capable team. Out of 21 test wins, he had a better Away win ratio than Kohli so that way I would rate him slightly above Kohli at the moment

Had Kohli won the WTC and the England series, I would have said that Kohli is the best captain India ever had.

I did read somewhere here that Kohli the batsman has gone missing off-late that is why a lot of fence-sitters may actually vote against him and that can be easily reversed.

 

Kohli(38 wins) needs 4 more Test wins to go No.3 overall beating Waughs record of 41 Test wins, and I would like to see him play for another 2 years as Captain to overtake  Ponting(48 wins) and maybe challenge Graeme Smith(53 wins) in terms of overall Test wins.

Kohli is not done yet, I feel his best is yet to come!

[Adamant]

9 hours ago, sarcastic said:

Time to revisit this thread.

He may be hailed as the greatest captain in test format but that is certainly not true in LOI cricket.

He should hang his boots as captain in LOI formats and focus on tests alone. 

He is certainly in the league of greatest ever captains for any team when it comes to tests.

But such a disappointing end to his LOI captaincy tomorrow. 

He had no legacy as a captain in LOI cricket. 

Complete failure. 

Second worst Indian LOI captain behind Sachin Tendulkar. 

[SRT100]

46 minutes ago, afan said:

Kohli is not done yet, I feel his best is yet to come!

 

Bullshit.

 

The guy has been in decline for a long time now.

 

Meaningless scores in white ball bilateral series mean nothing.

As a Test Cricketer he is already finished.

[afan]

On 11/8/2021 at 2:57 PM, SRT100 said:

 

Bullshit.

 

The guy has been in decline for a long time now.

 

Meaningless scores in white ball bilateral series mean nothing.

As a Test Cricketer he is already finished.

 

Let wait and see. I would never write him off. 

 

Even if he plays as a captain for the next 3 years, assuming 30 matches. Of which lets say he can win 20 of those, he can easily overcome Graeme Smiths Captaincy Wins.
Thats why we need to have the patience. 

As a fan, I would love to see VK get that record, and I am sure a lot of ICF would want to see that too.

As a batsman I think he will cross 10k easily and overtake Sunny G, but he may  not reach Dravids stats for sure.
Top 3 best  Indian Test batsmen ever quite possible! 
 

[cricketfan28]

He did a good job .

[New guy]

On 11/8/2021 at 2:49 PM, Adamant said:

He had no legacy as a captain in LOI cricket. 

Complete failure. 

Second worst Indian LOI captain behind Sachin Tendulkar. 

Worst IMO as kohlis team was not full of fixers, had great bowling talent to chose from unlike sachin, could chose any team he wanted unlike sachin and was given complete power unlike sachin

 

A captain who couldnt even chose his team or even batting or bowling line up cannot be comared with someone who was given the ultimate power

Edited November 14, 2021 by New guy

[New guy]

He has left a lasting legacy in our fast bowling cutlure, the value of which we will now know after he resigns from captaincy in tests

 

It took some guts to stand against the safer options and giving supoort ti young bowlers like bumrah. It's in our culture to blame fast bowlers when things dont work out

 

Umesh etc won't even have a career without him

 

We will understand once he is gone, because i am afraid we might go back to the safer option with mostly trundlers with one single fast bowler in team 

Edited November 14, 2021 by New guy

[Adamant]

1 hour ago, New guy said:

Worst IMO as kohlis team was not full of fixers, had great bowling talent to chose from unlike sachin, could chose any team he wanted unlike sachin and was given complete power unlike sachin

 

A captain who couldnt even chose his team or even batting or bowling line up cannot be comared with someone who was given the ultimate power

You might be right, but actually I have followed Tendulkars' career and I think he had no leadership quality.

[New guy]

19 minutes ago, Adamant said:

You might be right, but actually I have followed Tendulkars' career and I think he had no leadership quality.

Maybe, he will definitely not make any top list of captains. But his hands were also incredibly tied, 

 

He got 2 stints of captaincy, for around a year + each time 

 

First time, tour of west indies, Australia and south africa. We lost all 3. Drew series in sri lanks, won home series vs south africa and sri lanka 

 

Incredibly hard tours for a new captain who had no say in selection and decisions then he was removed in 13 months. Its like judging dhonis captaincy only on his 8-0 overseas record 

 

Seocnd stint, again barely a year

 

It was also clear he didn't enjoy captaincy at all, so when   BCCI wanted sachin as captain after whole dravid/chapel thing, to steady ship, he himself proposed dhonis name. Thankfully we got Dhoni and then Virat in tests 

Edited November 14, 2021 by New guy

[neel roy]

He has to win in south africa, then last test in england and then when happening a test series in nz to be considered the greatest.. dhoni won in nz, dhoni drew and was on course to win in saf 2010, ganguly drew in eng, aus, won in pak..dravid won in eng.. kohli has just won 2 times in aus, he lost against eng in 2018, also saf and also nz.. 

Edited November 14, 2021 by neel roy

[kepler37b]

Team performance = Support Structure + Caliber of the team + Conditions + Captaincy.

 

People crediting success to one factor are illogical. 

 

 

[ravishingravi]

Yes

 

 

[ravishingravi]

He is not even the best captain in this team. Under Rahane India won a series in Australia with a B team and against full strength Aussie side. He ofcourse left for home with infamous 36 all out.