Friday, 25 April 2025
Friday, 25 April 2025
India’s third Champions Trophy win and the fifth ICC ODI tournament triumph, has established Rohit Sharma’s track record as a captain, who has lost only one ODI game in ICC events.
So, how does captain Rohit Sharma rank when compared to the greatest captains in limited overs cricket?
We compared the record of Rohit Sharma against captains such as Ricky Ponting, M.S. Dhoni, Clive Lloyd and Virat Kohli to analyse the win percentages for each of these captains in ICC white ball events. And data shows that Rohit Sharma is the greatest white ball captain.
For Rohit, Virat, Dhoni and Ponting we looked at ICC Cricket World Cups, Champions Trophy and T20 World Cup campaigns while for Clive Lloyd, we looked at the Prudential Cups, where he featured as captain.
Virat Kohli
Virat Kohli led India in the 2019 World Cup. Under him, India won seven matches and lost two in nine games with a 77.77 per cent win rate. In the 2017 Champions Trophy, India under Virat won three and lost two in their five matches and his win rate was at 60 per cent. In the 2021 T20 World Cup, Kohli led India to the exact same result as his Champions Trophy run of five matches had three wins and two losses, with a win per cent of 60.
His total of 19 matches, with 13 wins, means 68.42 per cent success rate.
MS Dhoni
Under Dhoni, India won the 2007 T20 World Cup, 2011 World Cup and the 2013 Champions Trophy. He led India 17 times in ODI World Cups losing two; one was against England in Bengaluru in 2011, and won 14, including the win in Wankhede versus Sri Lanka in the 2011 World Cup final.
His win rate stands at 82.35 per cent.
In T20 World Cups, Dhoni led India to 20 wins, 11 losses, one draw and a washout in 33 games, with a win per cent of 60.60. His Champions Trophy record in eight games is six wins, one loss and one washout leaving him with a win rate of 75 per cent.
When you look at Dhoni's total of 58 matches as captain, he has 40 wins, which is a 68.97 per cent success rate.
Ricky Ponting
Ricky Ponting led Australia in 29 World Cup matches, won 26 of them, lost two and one match was without a result. Ponting has a win per cent of 89.65.
In the Champions Trophy, Ponting led the Kangaroos 16 times with three losses, one washed out game and 12 wins making his percentage for the tournament 75 per cent.
The tournament in which Ponting didn’t see success was the T20 World Cup where in 6 matches, he lost four and won two, with a win per cent of 33.33.
Ponting as captain in ICC events had 40 wins in 51 matches with a win per cent of 78.43.
Clive Lloyd
Lloyd led the West Indies and took them to three out of three cricket World Cup finals, which was then called the Prudential Cup. Under Lloyd, the team played 17 games, won 15 and lost two, including the 1983 World Cup final.
The bespectacled, left handed Guyanese batter finished his stint as a limited overs captain in ICC events with a win per cent of 88.23.
Rohit Sharma
Rohit may have lost 12 tosses as a captain, but India has lost only one game in ICC ODI events under him.
Rohit Sharma’s cricket World Cup record is 10 wins in 11 games with a success rate of 90.90 per cent. India’s unbeaten run to the title in the Champions Trophy means Rohit’s win rate is 100 per cent in five games. In ICC T20 World Cups, Rohit’s record as captain was 12 wins and two losses in 14 games with a win rate of 85.71 per cent.
Rohit’s total comes to 27 wins in 30 matches with a win rate of 90 per cent.
