Which player has led his team in international cricket the most number of times?
Not many cricketers are gifted enough to be leading their national team but few have been lucky enough in doing that for decades and more. Thus far, only five captains have completed 250 internationals as captain and only two of them got to 300.
Former India wicketkeeper-batsman MS Dhoni tops the list with 332 appearances as the Indian captain, out of which as many as 178 of them resulted in wins. Dhoni made his captaincy debut in the 2007 World T20 in the game against Scotland. The match never took place as covers came on straight after the toss.
Dhoni gave up his captaincy at the start of 2017 but led the team once again during the 2018 Asia Cup. He led India in the absence of the stand-in captain Rohit Sharma and his deputy Shikhar Dhawan ahead of the final. It turned out to be Dhoni’s 200th ODI as a captain. During his international captaincy career that spread over a decade, Dhoni led India to victories in three ICC competitions – World T20 2007, World Cup 2011 and Champions Trophy 2013. Till date, he is the only player to have won all these three competitions as a captain.
Ponting alert!
Despite not having won the T20 World Cup, Ricky Ponting holds the record for the most number of ICC trophies won as captain. He led Australia to ODI CWC titles in 2003 and 2007 before winning consecutive editions of the Champions Trophy in 2006 and 2009. Ponting was the first-ever captain to feature in 300+ international matches before Dhoni overtook his tally of 324 appearances as captain. Only 323 of those came while leading Australia as another game was the Tsunami Appeal ODI between World XI and Asia XI.
Graeme Smith, who is 4th in this list, went a step further and led three different teams. Alongside the South Africa national team, Smith also led Africa XI against Asia XI and the ICC World XI against Australia during the ICC Super Series. Till date, Smith and Shaun Pollock are the only captains to have led three different teams in international cricket.
