CRICKET
Five Indian captains unable to garner Test win
Rohit Sharma and his Indian side beat England by 106 runs recently to level the five Match Test series at 1-1. This win gave Rohit Sharma his 7th Test win as skipper in his 13th game at the helm.
Virat Kohli is the most successful Test captain in terms of wins. MS Dhoni, Sourav Ganguly, and Mohammad Azharuddin also boats of an amazing record as skippers. Ajinkya Rahane and KL Rahul possess a higher win percentage during his captaincy stints.
Here we take a closer look at the top five Indian skippers who couldn’t win a Test match:
5. Jasprit Bumrah
Jasprit Bumrah (Souce-Twitter)
India’s best fast bowler, Jasprit Bumrah was given the captaincy for the only Test versus England in 2022. The match played in Birmingham had to be rescheduled as India could only play four games in 2021.
Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja’s centuries helped India to a huge total. Jonny Bairstow replied with a century of his own before the Indian batting collapsed. Joe Root showed his class as England chased down an improbable 378-run score to win the Test.
4. Kris Srikkanth
K Srikkanth (Source-Twitter)
A flamboyant batter who would have been a perfect fit for T20 cricket. Kris Srikkanth wowed the crowd with his sizzling batting for India at the height of his career. In 1989 the Indian team was embroiled in a controversy that involved some big-name players.
Kris Srikkanth was named the captain of India for the demanding tour of Pakistan. The attacking batter led the team admirably well as India drew all four games. Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, and Abdul Qadir ran into a resolute team. The tour also gave the world its first glimpse at a certain Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar.
3. Gundappa Viswanath
G. Viswanath (Source-Twitter)
Considered a very stylish batter, Gundappa Viswanath could make batting look like a dream. Despite all his talents, the former legendary batter wasn’t known for his captaincy skills.
In 1979, Viswanath was given the captaincy ahead of a Test match against Pakistan. The game ended in a draw but he lost his second game as captain to England. That was the end of the experiment from the board as Viswanath never captained the side again.
2. S Venkataraghavan
S. Venkatraghavan (Source-Twitter)
The former off-spinner was a huge figure in the Indian spin quartet in the 1970s. The tall bowler was given charge of the team in 1974 for a single Test match against West Indies. India happened to lose that game before the regular skipper of the side returned to the side.
After the retirement of Bedi, Prasanna, and Chandrasekar, it was Venkataraghavan who took charge. In 1979 the former spin legend captained India in four more games against England. He lost 1 match and drew the other three and that unfortunately ended his captaincy tenure.
1. Chandu Borde
Chandu Borde (Souce-Twitter)
When the Indian team was just finding its feet in international cricket, Chandu Borde was a massive name. In his heyday, he was a batter with style. Panache, and temperament to grind out the best attacks.
Chandu Borde was the captain of the team for just one game against Australia in 1967. Regular skipper Mansoor Pataudi missed the game and India lost the game by 146 runs. It wasn’t a bad loss as the unfancied Indian side had given the home team a run for its money.