There has always been the debate that ‘Should Rohit be the captain of limited-overs cricket’. Both the batsmen have been the backbone of Indian cricket and one of the reasons behind India’s success in limited-overs cricket in the last 8-9 years. Although Virat has done nothing wrong as a captain, and has a superb captaincy record but hasn’t won any ICC trophy yet after playing two finals and one semis. So, here are 5 captaincy records that Rohit Sharma holds but Virat Kohli doesn’t.
5. Rohit won the first four matches as a captain
Rohit Sharma started his international career as a captain of India in 2017. And he started it with a bang, winning the first four matches comfortably. He won the first three games against Sri Lanka and his fourth win was against South Africa.
India has lost only four T20Is under Rohit. He has won 15 out of 19 T20Is as captain with a win percentage of 78.94. Whereas, Virat Kohli lost his first match in T20Is as a captain against England in 2017.
4. Better win percentage than Virat
Rohit has a win percentage of 80 as an ODI captain. On the other hand, Kohli has a win percentage of 68.42. However, the sample size is too small here. Rohit has captained India in only 10 ODIs and has won 8 matches whereas Kohli has 65 wins in 95 matches.
3. Multi-national tournaments wins
Rohit has won two titles as the captain in T20Is – Asia Cup 2018 and the Nidahas Trophy. Both the wins came against Bangladesh. On the other hand, Virat is yet to win a Multi-National tournament as a captain. As a captain, he took India to the finals of ICC champions trophy 2017 where India lost to Pakistan, to the semis of 2019 World Cup, lost to New Zealand in the close encounter, and now in the finals of ICC World Test Championship where they again got beaten by New Zealand.
2. Only Indian to score a T20I century as a captain
Rohit Sharma has scored three double centuries in ODI cricket. He also holds the record of the most number of T20I centuries (4) in the world. Out of those four centuries, two of them came when he was captaining the side.
The first one came against Srilanka where he scored 118 off just 43 balls including 10 towering sixes at Holkar Cricket Stadium, Indore. He also equaled David Miller’s record of the joint-fastest hundred in T20Is. And then he scored 111* against Windies at Lucknow in 2018. On the other hand, Virat has the highest score of 94 in T20Is and is yet to score a century.
1. 5 IPL titles to his name as a captain
Rohit Sharma has led Mumbai Indians to 5 IPL titles. The most successful captain in IPL history in terms of title wins. He has taken Mumbai Indians to victory in 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2020.
Whereas, Virat Kohli has not won an IPL trophy yet. He came close in 2016 where RCB lost to David Warner-led side SRH in the finals. He has been playing for the Royal Challengers Bangalore since the start of IPL and handed the captaincy job in 2013.