Indian team-skipper Virat Kohli overtook the former Indian team captain MS Dhoni and became the Indian captain with the most Test wins on Indian soil. After England was brutally crushed by the Indian team in the 3rd Test, Kohli now has 22 wins under his cap on Indian soil in the 29 Tests he has played as Indian captain.
Prior to Kohli, MS Dhoni was India’s most successful captain on Indian soil as he had 21 wins from his overall 30 Tests. Since wearing the captain’s cap in Test cricket in 2014, Kohli has made sure his Team surmounts all odds in pretty much every format of the game. He is also known to have significantly changed the culture in the Indian team dressing room by focusing more on mental agility, player fitness and has instilled a can-do attitude in the vastly-improved Indian team.
Talking about overall Tests played and won, Kohli has 35 victories registered in 59 Tests played by the Indian team under his captainship. The Indian side only lost 14 games in the 59 overall played games while 14 matches ended in a draw. He has a commendable 59.32 win percentage. The former Indian captain played 60 Tests as the Indian team’s captain and lead his team to victory 27 times. Off the 60 Tests played, Dhoni’s men faced a loss in 18 matches while 15 ended in a draw. This puts MS Dhoni’s win percentage as 45.
When Kohli was asked about his monumental feat, he said that such records don’t matter to him. Kohli in a pre-match presentation said, “Records as a captain mean nothing me or any other player. It is a responsibility given to me and I’m trying to do my best. This has always been the case, and will remain the same, as long as I play the game. These are fickle things which look great from outside, doesn’t matter to me as an individual.”
He also added, “We (MS Dhoni) share great camaraderie, and mutual respect is something you hold very dear to your heart. It is always more important than these milestones. I have a responsibility to keep Team India on top, and same applies to someone who takes over after me.”
Ind VS Eng Test 3 Highlights
After the first Test when England players roared in the Chepauk Stadium and registered a 227-run victory, nothing has gone right for Joe Root’s men.
In the second Test, the Indian team leveled the 4 Test series 1-1 by defeating England with a massive 317 run margin.
The Third Test was however known for the spectacle of the largest cricket stadium in the world, with an arguably disastrous pitch which led to the game getting over in less than 3 days. Indian team scored a victory over the guests inside two days and will now be taking on England in the fourth and final Test of the series starting March 4.
On the second day of the 3rd Test, a total of 17 wickets fell with both Axar Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin wreaking havoc on the England batsmen. Axar Patel picked 5 wickets, adding to his outstanding 6 wicket haul he achieved in the first inning. Meanwhile, Ashwin took 4 wickets.
The guests were bundled out at a paltry score of 81 and gave the Indian team a small target of 49 runs. The opening pair of Gill and Sharma chased the small target easily and sealed the victory.
Ashwin’s 4-wicket haul in the second innings led him to break the achieve the feat of being the 4th Indian bowler who scalped 400 wickets in Test cricket. Prior to him only Anil Kumble, Kapil Dev and Harbhajan Singh had achieved this feat. Ashwin’s milestone of scalping 400 wickets in Test cricket was extra special as he was the fastest Indian bowler to have achieved the feat.
