When Indian skipper Virat Kohli walked out for the toss with New Zealand captain Kane Williamson at the Rose Bowl in the World Test Championship (WTC) final, he accomplished a special feat. Kohli leapfrogged MS Dhoni to lead the Indian team in the most number of Test matches.
The WTC final against New Zealand is the 61st match for Kohli as India’s captain in red-ball cricket. On the other hand, Dhoni bid farewell to the longest format in December 2014 after leading India in 60 matches.
Interestingly, Kohli is also the longest-serving Test skipper for any Asian country. He is ahead of Arjuna Ranatunga of Sri Lanka and Pakistan’s Misbah-ul-Haq, who captained their respective teams in 56 Test matches.
When it comes to longest-serving captain, Proteas great Graeme Smith is at number one position as he captained South Africa in record 109 matches.
Most matches as captain in Test cricket:
- Graeme Smith – 109 matches
- Alan Border – 93 matches
- Stephen Fleming – 80 matches
- Ricky Ponting – 77 matches
- Clive Lloyd – 74 matches
- Virat Kohli – 61 matches
In the ongoing WTC final, Williamson won the toss and opted to field first. The decision paid off well for the Kiwis as India, after the good start, lost both the openers in the first session just before lunch.
Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill added 62 runs for the opening wicket when Kyle Jamieson provided the first breakthrough by dismissing Rohit for 34 runs in the 21st over. Soon after, Gill was outfoxed by Neil Wagner in the 25th over for 28 runs.
Then, Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara tried to steady the innings by adding 25 runs from 95 deliveries for the third wicket. However, Trent Boult broke the partnership by removing Pujara on the second ball of the 40th over to reduce India to 88/3.
