Most Centuries by a Captain in International Cricket

At the age of 32, Virat Kohli has already inscribed his name as one of the finest willow wielders that the gentleman’s game has ever seen. And, in terms of run-scoring, he has left every single batsman in the history of the game behind, including Sachin Tendulkar. Kohli’s numbers in international cricket generate a sense of awe, and his feats with the willow might never be replicated again.

He has scored 70 international centuries, and also stands second in the list of batsmen with the most three-figure scores in ODI cricket, with 43 tons to his name. But then, what has generated a greater amount of veneration is Kohli’s numbers with the bat as the captain.

He has already scored the most number of centuries as a captain in international cricket, and the table below will illustrate the same.

From the above table, we can see that Kohli has made every other player in the list appear very ordinary. The Indian skipper already occupies the top position (jointly with Ponting) in the list of captains who have scored the most centuries in international cricket. But then, while Ponting took 324 matches to score 41 hundreds, Kohli has taken a meager 188 matches to score the same number. And, even if he scores a single century in the Test series against England, he will overtake Ponting.

Also, we can see that Kohli has the best matches per century ratio. In fact, apart from Kohli and Steve Smith, no other batsman in the list has a matches per century ratio of less than 5. While Kohli has an insane ratio of 4.59 matches per hundred as captain, Smith follows him closely with a ratio of 4.65. But then, all the other batsmen in the list are miles behind, including all-time greats like Brian Lara, Ponting, and Graeme Smith.

Kohli has also scored a staggering 11811 international runs as captain and is closing in on Ponting’s tally of 15440 runs. India will take on the England side in a four-match Test series from February 5th, 2021. And, if Kohli finds his form in the Test series, then Joe Root and his side will surely be a worried lot.