Three captaincy records of Virat Kohli that Rohit Sharma may not break

Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma have been two of the most consistent match winners for India in the last decade. While Kohli has dominated all formats of the game, Sharma has been a modern-day great in limited-overs cricket.

Thus, with the long-standing captain, Kohli, no longer leading the national side, there could not have been a more ideal choice than Rohit Sharma to take over the duties. However, given the fact that Sharma has been handed over the reins at a later stage in his career, there are a few of the outgoing captain’s records that he might fail to break.

Here are the three records of Virat Kohli that Rohit Sharma might not be able to break as captain.

1. Most Test matches as captain of India

Virat Kohli led India in 68 Tests during his captaincy stint, thus, holding the record for most Test matches as Indian captain. It took Kohli almost eight years to play the 68 games since being appointed the Test captain in 2014 and eventually relinquishing the duties in 2022.

Rohit Sharma was recently handed over the reins of India’s Test captaincy. However, currently being 34 years of age, it is highly unlikely for Sharma to captain India for even nearly the same number of years as Kohli.

2. Most Test centuries as Indian captain

Out of the 27 Test centuries that Virat Kohli has scored so far, 20 have come as captain. He thus is also the cricketer with the highest number of centuries as India’s captain. Given the fact that amongst the 34 Test captains that India have had before Rohit, Kohli is the only captain with 20 centuries to his name, it could prove to be a mountain too big for Rohit Sharma.

3. Most ODI runs as Indian Captain

The former Indian skipper amassed 5449 runs at a stellar average of 72.65 as the ODI captain of India. Even though Kohli has been one of the most consistent scorers in the One-Day format over the years, it took him 95 matches as captain to score the runs. With more focus now being laid on T20I cricket by the cricketing boards and Test cricket continuing to be prioritized, the number of ODI fixtures in a team’s international calendar has reduced significantly.

Though Rohit Sharma is of a similar pedigree as Kohli in white-ball cricket, the chances of him playing a significant number of ODI games to be able to break the record seem to be bleak. The Mumbai born cricketer has so far scored 621 runs in the 13 ODI games he has captained India so far.