IND v ENG 2021: Virat Kohli goes past Steve Waugh's captaincy record; equals Ricky Ponting

Virat Kohli's record as India captain is breaking new records quite quickly.

By Sameer Deodhar - 07 Mar, 2021

Team India completed a 3-1 Test series victory over England with an innings and 25-run rout in the fourth Test at Ahmedabad. With the victory, they not only reached the World Test Championship (WTC) Final but also helped skipper Virat Kohli move up in the list of most successful Test captains.

The 4th Test win was Kohli's 23rd victory at home in 30 matches as captain. He went past former Australian great Steve Waugh's tally of 22 Test wins at home and now ranks third in the list. The only two more successful captains at their respective homes are South Africa's Graeme Smith (30 wins in 53 matches) and Australia's Ricky Ponting (29 wins in 39 matches).

The series victory is Team India’s record 13th consecutive series win at home. Virat Kohli was the captain for the last 10 of those. He has thus equaled the record held by Ricky Ponting for most consecutive Test series wins at home.

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India lost the first match of the series at the MA Chidambaram stadium in Chennai and then came back strong to win the next three games. While Team India head coach compared the Indian players ahead of the first Test to zombies because of the bubble fatigue and no crowds to support them, Kohli labeled the game as an aberration.

He said in the post-series presentation, “The comeback in Chennai pleased me the most. The first game was an aberration and England outplayed us. The toss played a crucial role and the bowlers weren't in the contest.

We bowled and fielded with more intensity and so the comeback was very heartening. Our bench strength is extremely strong and that's a good sign for Indian cricket,” he added.

(With inputs from Hindustan Times)

By Sameer Deodhar - 07 Mar, 2021

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