Former Indian cricketer Ambati Rayudu has recently ranked the best Indian captains. In this interesting exercise, he has put Rohit Sharma above Virat Kohli, much to everyone's surprise.
Both Rohit and Kohli retired from Test and T20I cricket recently and will be playing ODI cricket for the team. Both will soon be playing for India when they take on Australia and South Africa later this year.
Meanwhile, to start off his exercise, Ambati Rayudu has kept MS Dhoni at number one in his list of top captains. Dhoni is the only captain in international cricket to win all three ICC titles, the T20 World Cup, ODI World Cup and the Champions Trophy.
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Rayudu Keeps Rohit Above Kohli
He has placed Rohit Sharma in the second position. Rohit won the T20 World Cup 2024 and the ICC Champions Trophy 2025, which were his two biggest achievements as India’s white-ball skipper. India did not win an ICC trophy for more than 10 years before he became captain and in the next six to eight months, he won two titles.
After Rohit, Rayudu placed Sourav Ganguly at number three on his list. India first started winning overseas under Ganguly’s captaincy. He won Test matches in Australia and England, which was a big achievement in his career. His biggest achievement was winning the Natwest Trophy in 2002 and taking the Indian team to the ODI World Cup final in 2003.
Former Indian skipper Kapil Dev is fourth in his list of most successful captains. He was the first World Cup-winning captain for India. Eversince, he won the World Cup, the entire country started liking and following the sport. Winning the 1983 World Cup remained his most important contribution to Indian cricket.
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Kohli Remains India's Most Successful Test Skipper
Former Indian skipper Virat Kohli is as low as fifth in his list. Kohli was India’s most successful Test captain, winning 40 out of the 68 matches he led. He was the second captain after Sourav Ganguly under whom India started winning overseas Test matches and beating teams like Australia, England and South Africa. Under him, India reached the final of the 2019 World Cup and the WTC 2021 final as well.
Mohammed Azharuddin is last in Rayudu’s list. Indian cricket was at one of its lowest points with the whole match-fixing controversy in 1999. He also led India in the 1999 ODI World Cup. Ganguly then took over from him and brought Indian cricket back on track with the famous Kolkata Test win against Australia in 2001, starting the team’s transition.
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