| Captain | Away Series Wins | Series Wins in |
|---|---|---|
| Virat Kohli | 5 | Sri Lanka (2015), West Indies (2016), Sri Lanka (2017), Australia (2018/19), West Indies (2019) |
| Sourav Ganguly | 3 | Pakistan (2004)*, Bangladesh (2004), Zimbabwe (2005) |
| Rahul Dravid | 3 | West Indies (2006), Bangladesh (2007), England (2007) |
| MS Dhoni | 3 | New Zealand (2009), Bangladesh (2010)**, West Indies (2011) |
| Ajit Wadekar | 2 | West Indies (1971), England (1971) |
| Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi | 1 | New Zealand (1968) |
| Kapil Dev | 1 | England (1986) |
| Mohammad Azharuddin | 1 | Sri Lanka (1993) |
| Ajinkya Rahane | 1 | Australia (2020/21)*** |
| KL Rahul | 1 | Bangladesh (2022) |
| Rohit Sharma | 1 | West Indies (2023) |
Notes:
One-off Tests not considered as a series.
*Rahul Dravid stood in for Sourav Ganguly in the first two Tests. Ganguly returned as captain in the third match.
**Virender Sehwag was the stand-in skipper in the first Test, while full-time captain MS Dhoni took charge in the second match.
***Virat Kohli captained in the first Test before Ajinkya Rahane filled in for him in the next three matches.
Key Insights
Virat Kohli has registered the most away bilateral Test series victories among Indian captains. He guided India to five away Test series victories.
Two of Kohli’s series wins each came in Sri Lanka and the West Indies on consecutive tours. Sourav Ganguly is the other Indian skipper to win back-to-back away series. He did so in Bangladesh in 2000 and 2004.
Kohli is the only Indian skipper to win two Test series each in two away countries. Explore more about Virat Kohli’s away Test captaincy records here.
Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi was India’s captain when the team won its first overseas Test series. He led them to a 3-1 victory in New Zealand in 1968.
Ajit Wadekar was the first Indian captain to win two away Test series in a calendar year. He guided the Indian men to series triumphs in the West Indies and England in 1971. These were also India’s first Test series victories in the respective countries.
Six Indian captains have won a Test series each in at least one of the four SENA – South Africa, England, New Zealand, and Australia – countries. Apart from Pataudi and Wadekar, Rahul Dravid (England, 2007), MS Dhoni (New Zealand, 2009), Kohli (Australia, 2018/19), and Ajinkya Rahane (Australia, 2020/21) managed a SENA series win each.
In 1993, India won their first Test series away from home in Asia. India, captained by Mohammad Azharuddin, defeated Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka by 1-0 in the three-Test series.
India have registered their only away Test series whitewash under Kohli’s captaincy (minimum three-match series). He scripted India’s 3-0 whitewash in Sri Lanka in 2017.
Read here: Take a deeper look at how India performed in overseas Tests throughout the 20th century.
