Continuing his meteoric rise as the Test captain, Virat Kohli has added yet another feather to his already illustrious cap by equalling his predecessor Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s records of six away wins. The 28-year old is now second in the list of Indian captains with most away wins behind Sourav Ganguly who led India to 11 wins outside the country.
Kohli achieved the feat after India thrashed Sri Lanka by an innings and 53 runs in the second Test at Colombo on Sunday (August 6). With this win, India also wrapped up the series with one more match still remaining.
Kohli, who was handed the Test captaincy during the 2014-15 tour of Australia, began his captaincy career with a draw in the final Test of the series in Australia before leading the team to a three-match series in Sri Lanka in 2015.
The series did not start on a good note as India lost the first match from a strong winning position but Virat Kohli & Co. bounced back strongly, winning the next two matches to seal the series and start an unbeaten run of series which just got extended after the team defeated Sri Lanka on Sunday.
Meanwhile, after the tour of Sri Lanka in 2015, India defeated South Africa 3-0 the same year before visiting West Indies in 2016 for a four-match series which they won 2-0. Then began the mammoth home season comprising 13 Tests and India thoroughly dominated it, winning 10 and losing just one as they registered series wins over New Zealand, England, Bangladesh and Australia.
And while Kohli still needs to win nine Tests to equal Dhoni’s record of overall wins in the longest format of the game as captain, he has equalled the World Cup-winning skipper’s tally of overseas wins.
Here is the list of India’s most successful captains on overseas tours:
| Captain | Wins |
| Sourav Ganguly | 11 |
| MS Dhoni | 6 |
| Virat Kohli | 6 |
| Rahul Dravid | 4 |
Here is the overall list:
| Captains | Matches | Wins |
| MS Dhoni | 60 | 27 |
| Sourav Ganguly | 49 | 21 |
| Mohammad Azharuddin | 47 | 14 |
| Sunil Gavaskar | 47 | 9 |
| MAK Pataudi | 40 | 9 |
| Kapil Dev | 34 | 4 |
| Virat Kohli | 28 | 18 |
| Rahul Dravid | 25 | 8 |
| Sachin Tendulkar | 25 | 4 |
| Bishan Singh Bedi | 22 | 6 |