Innings victories can only mean DOMINANCE in Test cricket.
Only a few teams in Test cricket were at the top of their competitors regularly. West Indies team in the late 70s and Australian team in late nineties and early 2000s were exceptional across the generations.
Currently, the Indian team under Virat Kohli is showing the same level of dominance. Even though they have not won the Test series in England and South Africa yet, their home dominance is at the same level as the other legendary teams before.
Virat Kohli, the Indian captain with the most Test wins, is also the Indian captain with the tag of “Most Innings wins by an Indian Test captain” – another feather to his captaincy cap.
He went past MS Dhoni’s record of 9 innings victories as Indian Test captain by taking his team to the 10th innings win in the longer format in his 52nd game as Test captain.
So, where does he stand in the overall list of Test captains with most innings win?
Let us get into it, straight away!
Most Innings victories by a Test captain
Here’s the list of captains with most Test wins by an innings under their captaincy.
| CAPTAINS | MATCHES | INNINGS WINS | TOTAL WINS |
|---|---|---|---|
| G SMITH (SA) | 109 | 22 | 53 |
| S WAUGH (AUS) | 57 | 14 | 41 |
| P MAY (ENG) | 41 | 12 | 20 |
| V KOHLI (IND) | 67 | 12 | 40 |
| A STRAUSS (ENG) | 50 | 11 | 24 |
| C LLOYD (WI) | 74 | 11 | 36 |
| S FLEMING (NZ) | 80 | 11 | 28 |
| MS DHONI (IND) | 60 | 9 | 27 |
| A BORDER (AUS) | 93 | 8 | 32 |
| M AZHARUDDIN (IND) | 47 | 8 | 14 |
Stats Highlights
- Graeme Smith, who is the only captain ever to play more than 100 Test matches as captain, and win more than 50 Test matches as captain, leads this chart with 22 innings victories.
- Ricky Ponting and Sourav Ganguly are the next two on this list with seven innings-wins under their Test captaincy.
- Peter May of England, third in this list, has the better innings wins per matches ratio. He achieved 12 innings wins of 41 Test matches played as captain, almost one-third of his total captained games.
- Steve Waugh, in this list, is the only captain not to have a single innings defeat.
- Clive Lloyd, the former West Indian captain, who is also on this list, captained the most Tests before facing the first Innings defeat in his 73rd Test as captain.
- On the contrary to this list, New Zealand’s John Reid and Bangladesh’s Khaled Mashud attained the record for the most innings defeat in Test cricket as captain. Both these captains have got 10 innings defeats in Tests under their captaincy. Check here the top 5 captains with most innings defeats in Test cricket.
Currently, Virat Kohli looks the most promising to reach the top of this list. He is already in this list of elite captains with 10 or more Test wins by innings as captain.
He has also become the 1st Indian captain to reach 10 innings victories in Tests. Look at each of his innings wins in chronological order here.
Now, with the Test championships undergoing and the draws in Test cricket becoming infrequent occasions, there is a high chance that Virat will continue to dominate teams, especially the ones that are travelling!
