Virat Kohli wins a Test series in Australia; Here are 12 unlucky captains before him

Twelve captains tried before Virat Kohli but never could win a Test series in Australia, with a few drawing while one losing very closely. Virat Kohli, the current captain, became the lucky 13th to lead India to win a Test series Down Under in the 2018-19 season when they wrapped up a four-game series 2-1. Indian fans and former cricketers along with the international community came up with wishes for Virat Kohli and his squad for being the first Asian nation to win a Test series in Australia.

India won the first game in Adelaide by 31 runs and after Australia levelled the series in Perth winning it by 146 runs, India came up with a solid performance in Melbourne to make it 2-1. The visitors dominated the fourth Test until the fourth day as well, enforcing the follow-on. But rain on the fifth day disallowed play to give the hapless hosts an escape route. Cheteshwar Pujara was picked the man of the series for his three hundreds scored in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney.

India lost their first series in Australia in 1947-48

The first captain to lead India in Australia was Lala Amarnath in 1947-48 but his team was trounced 4-0 by Don Bradman’s team in five games with the Don scoring over 700 runs. In 1967-68 too, India were blown away 4-0 by Australia and this time Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi captained in three Tests while Chandu Borde in one.

The 1977-78 series led by Bishan Singh Bedi saw a significant improvement in India’s performance as they squared the series 2-2 after trailing 0-2 but lost in a high chase in the deciding Test to lose 2-3. The next two series in 1981 and 1985-86 saw India drawing the Aussies 0-0 and 1-1 under the captaincies of Kapil Dev and Sunil Gavaskar, respectively.

Azhar and Sachin proved to be poor captains Down Under

The 1990s saw the return of the ghost as India lost seven out of eight Tests (four under Mohammad Azharuddin in 1991-92 and three under Sachin Tendulkar in 1999-2000). Sourav Ganguly’s team returned with a well-deserved 1-1 draw after taking a 1-0 lead. India lost the next three series: 1-2 in 2007-08 under Anil Kumble; 0-4 under Mahendra Singh Dhoni (three) and Virender Sehwag (one) in 2011-12. India had a split captaincy in the 2014-15 series also when Dhoni and Kohli led in two Tests each and they lost 0-2.

And then came the historic 2018-19 series which marked a new high in the history of Indian cricket.

Here are the captains who led the Indian Test team in Australia

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