Leading with success: Five most successful captains of 2020
The year 2020 wasn’t blessed enough to witness a lot of matches when it comes to international cricket due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many teams were restricted to either playing away or only home through the year. This meant very few captains turned out to be successful in maintaining a positive record. Eoin Morgan emerged as the most successful captain of 2020 in International cricket despite England losing their first ODI series at home in five years.
He lost the 3-match ODI series against Australia after losing a thrilling series-decider. Morgan also lost an ODI against his home country Ireland but not before sealing the series with a 2-0 margin. The success in the T20I series on South African soil contributed to his winning record in 2020. Under his captaincy, England lost a close game before winning the series 2-1 in the first quarter of the year.
The English team also toured South Africa a 3-match T20I series earlier this month where they got the better of the hosts by 3-0 series winning lead. Morgan won a total of 12 of the 20 matches where he stood as England skipper and lost only six matches in total. Australia’s Aaron Finch comes next on the list having won 10 matches but did lose as many as 11 games at the same time. No captain has lost more matches in International cricket than Finch.
Virat Kohli comes next to Finch in both the lists having won 9 games and lost 10 matches in International cricket in 2020. If we add the two T20I wins in the New Zealand tour coming via Super Over, Kohli’s tally will rise to 11 wins and occupy the 2nd place in the list of most successful captains this year. India lost seven consecutive matches between New Zealand and Australia tours this year which is their joint-longest losing streak ever in International cricket.
(Stats as on December 28, 2020)