Stats: Captains who never fielded with an unchanged XI in most Tests

The Indian team is currently touring South Africa. They are now playing the Third Test against the Proteas. Team India already lost the Test series to the Proteas. India yet again went into this Test with a different playing eleven. Ever since Virat Kohli has been at the helm, he never fielded the same playing eleven.

With this match, he did this for the 35th consecutive time. In the process, Virat achieved a unique record. Virat is now played the highest number of consecutive Test matches with a changed eleven. He went past Mushfiqur Rahim from Bangladesh who did this for 34 consecutive times in all the matches he captained. Virat cites conditions and forms a reason for this kind of trend in Indian cricket. However, his predecessor MS Dhoni never preferred changing his eleven until he was forced to do so. He believed that he has to keep the winning combination going.

Captains who never fielded with an unchanged XI in Test cricket

As mentioned, Virat Kohli now tops this list with 35 Test matches followed by Mushfiqur Rahim in 34 Tests. Following these two is former English captain, Ray Illingworth who fielded a different playing eleven in all 31 Test matches that he captained. Former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram also features in this list.

The left-arm pacer played with a different eleven in as many as 25 Tests in which he captained. Wally Hammond is another English skipper who features on this list. He did this for 20 consecutive Tests. Hammond is levelled with Zimbabwean skipper Andy Flower who also did this 20 times.

The number of Test matches before fielding in an unchanged XI

The former South Africa skipper Graeme Smith captained in 108 Test matches and changed his eleven for the first time after 44 Tests. He is followed by Sourav Ganguly who changed the eleven after 29 tests. He is followed by Pakistan skipper Inzamam Ul Haq and Windies skipper Darren Sammy who changed their eleven after 27 and 25 Tests respectively. Sir Donald Bradman also features on this list. He changed his eleven after 20 Tests.

These cricket stats are as on 24th Jan 2018. For more stats and other latest and breaking cricketing news today around the world, keep following CricTracker site!