The 31-year-old tall right-arm pacer Ishant Sharma has recently revealed his favourite captain between the two most successful Indian captains, MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli.

In the present Indian team, Ishant is one of the most experienced players. The lanky right-arm pacer made his international cricket debut in 2007. While he made his Test and ODI debuts (both in 2007) under the captaincy of Rahul Dravid, Dhoni was the Indian captain during his T20I debut (1st February 2008).

Till the date, Ishant has played 97 Tests, 80 ODIs and 14 T20Is where the right-arm pacer has taken 297, 115 and eight wickets respectively.

In his international career, Ishant has played under seven different captains, but he has played more than ten international matches only under two captains.

Ishant Sharma, MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli — Ishant Sharma (Image Credit: Google)

While Ishant played 130 international matches under the leadership of the former Indian skipper Dhoni, the tall pacer has already played 42 international matches under the present Indian captain Kohli.

Only under Dhoni’s captaincy, Ishant has played all the three international formats as Dhoni was the Indian captain during his all the 14 T20Is.

Ishant Sharma, MS Dhoni — Ishant Sharma and MS Dhoni (Image Credit: Twitter)

Ishant Sharma’s number of international matches under different Indian captains

Captain	Period	No. of international matches
MS Dhoni	2008-2016	130
Virat Kohli	2013-2020	42
Anil Kumble	2007-2008	9
Virender Sehwag	2009-2012	5
Rahul Dravid	2007-2007	2
Suresh Raina	2011-2011	2
Ajinkya Rahane	2018-2018	1

(Note: updated till 14th March 2020)

Also, Ishant played four IPL matches under the leadership of Dhoni when he was serving for Rising Pune Supergiants (RPS) in IPL 2016.

Recently, in an interview, Ishant was asked about his favourite captains between Dhoni and Kohli. The experienced pacer has claimed that both are his favourite captains.

Ishant told Cricbuzz, “Both Dhoni and Virat are my favourite captains. I can’t pick one and create a controversy.”

However, Ishant has specifically chosen his best-ever batsman. He has claimed that Virat Kohli is his most favourite batsman of all time. Both Ishant and Kohli made their first-class debuts together for Delhi.