The Indian cricket team has seen its fair share of leaders across formats over the years. Dozens of top talents have come and gone as team skipper after the leadership of C.K. Nayudu and Ajit Wadekar.
However, few captains in the modern era have been able to surpass the performances of Virat Kohli. Team India has always had great leaders on the cricket pitch, but Kohli remains one of the country’s top stars of all time. Let’s see the players who have stepped up to replace Kohli as skipper across formats in recent years.
In Test Cricket
In Test cricket, four (4) players have come skipper after Kohli’s retirement in 2021. These players are Ajinkya Rahane (66.7% PCT from 6 games), KL Rahul (66.7% PCT after 3 games), Rohit Sharma (57.1% PCT after 7 games) and Jasprit Bumrah (scheduled for 1 Test game in 2023).
These figures are nowhere near Kohli’s impressive 58.9% PCT after 68 games as team skipper. His win PCT record as skipper is event better than that of MS Dhoni with only 8 more games played.
In T20 Cricket
Rohit Sharma (2017 to present day)
Rohit Sharma shared the T20 captaincy with Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, and Hardik Pandya from 2017 to 2023. Rohit has continued to serve as Men in Blue skipper. He has a decent 76.4% win PCT as T20 skipper for Team India after 50+ matches in this format alone.
Shikhar Dhawan (2021), Rishabh Pant (2022), and Hardik Pandya (2022 and 2023)
Shikhar Dhawan (3 games), Rishabh Pant (5 games), and Hardik Pandya (11 games) have all been team skipper after Virat Kohli resigned from T20 captaincy.
Ruturaj Gaikwad (Asian Games 2023)
Gaikwad will be the Team B skipper as India head to the Asian Games 2023 with a second-string side. This tournament will be his first performance as a T20 skipper for India.
In ODI Cricket
Five captains have been at the helm of affairs since Virat Kohli resigned from ODI cricket captaincy in 2021. See the list of players below, their games played, win PCT, and captaincy timeline:
- Ajinkay Rahane (3 games with 10% PCT in 2015)
- Rohit Sharma (26 games played with 73% PCT from 2017 to present)
- Shikhar Dhawan (12 games played with 7% PCT from 2021 to 2022)
- KL Rahul (7 games played with 57% PCT in 2022)
- Hardik Pandya (1 match with 100% PCT in 2023)
Full List of Indian Cricket Team Captains (with Win PCT) Test Cricket
| Test Skipper | Matches Played | Wins | Losses | Ties | Win PCT | |
| 1 | Lala Amarnath | 15 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 13.33% |
| 2 | Vijay Hazare | 14 | 1 | 5 | 8 | 7.14% |
| 3 | Polly Umrigar | 8 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 25% |
| 4 | Gulabrai Ramchand | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2% |
| 5 | Nari Contractor | 12 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 16.67% |
| 6 | Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi | 40 | 9 | 19 | 12 | 22.5% |
| 7 | Ajit Wadekar | 16 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 25% |
| 8 | Sunil Gavaskar | 47 | 9 | 8 | 30 | 19.14% |
| 9 | Bishan Singh Bedi | 22 | 6 | 11 | 5 | 27.27% |
| 10 | Kapil Dev | 34 | 4 | 7 | 23 | 11.76% |
| 11 | Dilip Vengsarkar | 10 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 2% |
| 12 | Ravi Shastri | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 10% |
| 13 | Mohammad Azharuddin | 47 | 14 | 14 | 19 | 29.79% |
| 14 | Sachin Tendulkar | 25 | 4 | 9 | 12 | 16% |
| 15 | Sourav Ganguly | 49 | 21 | 13 | 15 | 42.86% |
| 16 | Rahul Dravid | 25 | 8 | 6 | 11 | 32% |
| 17 | Virender Sehwag | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5% |
| 18 | Anil Kumble | 14 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 21.42% |
| 19 | MS Dhoni | 60 | 27 | 18 | 15 | 45.00% |
| 20 | Virat Kohli | 68 | 40 | 17 | 11 | 58.82% |
| 21 | Ajinkya Rahane | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 66.66% |
| 22 | KL Rahul | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 66.67% |
| 23 | Rohit Sharma | 7 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 57.14% |
Full List of Indian Cricket Team Captains since 2000: ODI Cricket
| ODI Skipper | Years of Captaincy | Matches Played | Win | Loss | Tie/NR | Win % | |
| 1 | Sourav Ganguly | 1999-2005 | 146 | 76 | 65 | 5 | 53.90% |
| 2 | Arhul Dravid | 2000-2007 | 79 | 42 | 33 | 4 | 56% |
| 3 | Anil Kumble | 2001 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 10% |
| 4 | Virender Sehwag | 2003-2011 | 12 | 7 | 5 | 0 | 58.33% |
| 5 | Mahendra Singh Dhoni | 2007-2018 | 200 | 110 | 74 | 5/11 | 59.52% |
| 6 | Suresh Raina | 2010 | 12 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 54.54% |
| 7 | Gautam Gambhir | 2010-2011 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 10% |
| 8 | Virat Kohli | 2013-2021 | 95 | 65 | 27 | 1/2 | 70.43% |
| 9 | Ajinkay Rahane | 2015 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 10% |
| 10 | Rohit Sharma | 2017-Present | 26 | 19 | 7 | 0 | 73.07% |
| 11 | Shikhar Dhawan | 2021-2022 | 12 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 7% |
| 12 | KL Rahul | 2022 | 7 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 57.14% |
| 13 | Hardik Pandya | 2023 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 100% |
