9 most successful Indian Captains in ODIs

India is one of the most successful cricket teams in the entire world in all three formats of cricket. The credit for the glory and victory in the Indian Cricket team goes to the successful Indian Captains. Their captaincy has helped the squad to win and hold records. of the team depend a lot on the captain and As of now, a total of 24 players have been the captain of the Indian team in ODIs. Mahendra Singh Dhoni has played the most number of matches and successfully 110 of them virus the best win percentage of 70% has been made by Virat Kohli. Let's took a look at the top 9 most successful Indian captains in ODIs.

Most successful Indian Captains in ODIs

9. Sachin Tendulkar

Sachin Tendulkar became the captain of the Indian cricket team as a captain of in 1996. He is considered the God of cricket worldwide due to his excellent and outstanding batting skills. He overpowered everyone with his batting records and gained name fame and limelight. But his journey being the captain of the team was not similar to the journey as a batsman in the Indian cricket team. He led India in 73 ODI matches where the team successfully won only 23 matches. His winning percentage was only 35.07%. The fact that the team during that time was not strong is absolutely true his captaincy was also not good and could not pull up the team to a good mark.

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8. Sunil Gavaskar

Sunil Gavaskar became the captain of the Indian Test team in 1976. After a few years, he was given the ODI captaincy in 1980. During his captaincy in ODI, he led the team in 38 matches and won 14 matches out of it with a winning percentage of 36.84%. One of the most memorable moments of his captaincy career was winning the world championship of cricket in Australia in 1985.

7. Dilip Vengsarkar

The batsman popularly known as colonel due to his heroic performances is none other than Dilip Vengsarkar. He started leading the Indian cricket team as a captain in 1987. The period of his captaincy was very short and it ended in 1989. He played brilliantly in his first series as a captain where he scored two centuries but right after that the team had a horrible tour in West Indies in early 1989 and he lost his position. In the short span of his captaincy period, he led the team to play 18 matches where the team won only 8 matches with a win percentage of 44.4.

6. Mohammad Azharuddin

Azharuddin became the captain of the Indian cricket team in 1989. His first match was the tour to New Zealand. He led the Indian squad in a total of 174 matches where the team won in 90 matches with a percentage of 53.57. He is considered as one of the best captains are Indian team ever had and he also held the record of the highest number of wins in ODI and his record was then suppressed by MS Dhoni.

5. Sourav Ganguly

Sourav Ganguly is undoubtedly one of the most fearless and successful Indian captains of India. He started his captaincy in 1999 and took risks at every point in time and pushed his team forward always. He often willingly targeted himself to draw the attention of the opposition and benefited other players to give their best for themselves and the team. Ganguly was a part of the team's ups and downs. He did an exceptional job in captaincy and also helped players like MS Dhoni, Mohammad Kaif, Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan, and Virender Sehwag to have an exceptional career and achieve international acclaim. He played a total of 146 ODI matches as a captain and won 76 matches out of 146 matches, with a winning percentage of 54.

4. Kapil Dev

Kapil Dev is considered to be one of the most greatest and successful Indian captains of all time. He is one of the greatest all-rounders in the history of Indian cricket. During his career, he has made many unbreakable records like the only cricketer to score 5000 runs and take more than 400 wickets in test cricket. He is the first captain who led the team to win the historic world cup for the first time in 1983. He started his captaincy in 1982 and his first match was the tour of the West Indies. The team successfully won the match. Gavaskar was reappointed as the captain of the team in 1984 due to his poor performances.

But again in 1985 Dev started his captaincy and won the very first test match against England in 1986. He led the team in a total of 79 matches and won 39 matches with a winning percentage of 54.16%. His captaincy period was rough due to his inconsistency at some point in time. But as a whole, he is a better captain than a player according to statistics.

3. Rahul Dravid

Rahul Dravid became the captain of the Indian team after Sourav Ganguly in 2000. He was nicknamed the wall of cricket for obvious reasons. Be it during captaincy or at any other time, the team believed in him every time. When Dravid enjoy the Indian team, the situation was quite uncertain. But slowly and steadily he led and rebuilt the team. Cricketers like Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni Irfan Pathan were a crucial part of the team at that time. They helped Dravid to win matches and also brought improvement in the ODI considerably. He played 79 matches as a captain and won 42 matches. He has a winning percentage of 56.

2. Mahendra Singh Dhoni

"Dhoni hai to mumkin hai!"- The phrase praising Dhoni is 100% correct as he is one of the most successful Indian captains. We have seen him taking matches from very uncertain to wholesome wins. The cool captain holds many records and created history when it comes to Indian cricket. He started captaincy in 2007 and since then there is no looking back. He is always calm and composed always beat on-field or off-field. Dhoni holds the record of playing most ODI matches and scoring the most ODI runs as an Indian captain. As a captain, his batting average is the 3rd best after Virat Kohli and AB De Villiers. India became the number 1 ranked ODI team under MS Dhoni's captaincy in 2013 for the first time.

After Kapil Dev, he is the one who led the team to win the 2011 world cup. India won the 2007 T20 World Cup and the 2013 champions trophy under his captaincy. He also played 200 ODI matches as a captain and won 110 of them. In addition, his winning percentage is a whopping 60. He is undoubtedly one of the most loved and appreciated cricketers all over the world. Dhoni announced his retirement on 15th August 2020 by an Instagram post. He played his last international match against New Zealand in the Semi-Final of the 2019 world cup.

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1. Virat Kohli

The king of cricket made his debut in international cricket in 2008 and since then there is no looking back. In 12 years of his cricketing career, he has made and broke many records and is also the present captain of the Indian team since 2016. There has been a lot of conversations regarding Kohli's captaincy but he has overcome all of this with his captaincy and performances. He is the fourth most successful Indian captain in ODI after MS Dhoni, Sourav Ganguly, and Mohammed Azharuddin. After his former captain MS Dhoni, Kohli is the second Indian captain with the most runs in ODI matches.

King Kohli also holds the record of most number of ODI centuries by an Indian captain. He has played 95 matches in ODI as a captain and has won 65 of them and he has a great winning percentage of 70% when it comes to ODI.

Who is your favorite among them?