Virat Kohli’s top achievements as the skipper of the Indian ODI team

One of India’s most successful captainships was abruptly brought to an end on Wednesday, November 15, 2021. BCCI announced through a tweet that Virat Kohli would not be leading team India in ODI tournaments anymore. With the cricket board undergoing major internal changes, it named Rohit Sharma as captain for India’s upcoming South Africa tour.  

Kohli, the former ODI captain, has led the Indian team to some great accomplishments during his tenure between 2013-2021. Under him, India won 65 out of 95 ODIs, with him securing a win-loss ratio of 2.407, better than MS Dhoni, Saurav Ganguly and Mohammad Azharuddin. Here is a list of Virat Kohli’s top 3 ODI achievements. 

India was named as the best travelling team from 2017-2021 under Kohli 
Although England secured its place as the world champions, the Indian team was named as the best travelling team for a staggering five consecutive years. This means that it was the most consistent unit. Throughout 2019, India won several ODI series against West Indies, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand with Kohli as captain. In total, India had 25 wins and 13 losses in this period out of 40 matches which put it before England and South Africa. 

Kohli was the first Indian captain to win an ODI series in South Africa 
This was an important moment in the Indian cricket history, as winning an ODI series was unprecedent. It took place in February 2018, before which India had come close to winning the series way back in 2010, but failed. 2018 saw an impressive 5-1 victory, where Kohli smashed a total of 558 runs with an average of 186. Out of the 6 matches, he scored a century in 3. 

Kohli led the Indian team to victory in New Zealand after a decade 
Although they lost to the Kiwis in the 2019 World Cup, India won a series on their home front just 6 months prior. This was a 5-match ODI series which followed India’s success against Australia. Out of the 5, Kohli captained the first 3 matches while Rohit Sharma took the responsibility for the latter 2. During the former 3, India beat the hosts by 8 wickets, 90 runs and 7 wickets respectively. This was a huge blow to New Zealand because after this, they managed to not lose a single ODI series in their country.