Industry Odisha Bureau, Jun 7: Even though Shreyas Iyer has reportedly replaced Surya Kumar Yadav (suitably acronymic ‘SKY’) as Men in Blue Team India’s new T20I captain for the upcoming UK tour and Asian Games in Japan, and also selectors are believed to be keeping in view the Olympics and T20 World Cup in 2028, cricket critics not only deem SKY to be “the most successful Indian T20I captain”, but also his captaincy record surpasses his predecessors Rohit Sharma (RS), Virat Kohli (VK) and even Mahendra Singh Dhoni (MSD).
If the track records as their Men in Blue Team India’s captaincy are evaluated and analysed individually:
1) Nicknamed as ‘Captain Cool’ and “widely regarded as India’s best captain for his ability to remain compose under pressure, strategic acumen and record-making achievements across all formats of cricket”, MSD “captained a total of 72 matches during his captaincy period from 2007 to 2016, winning 41 and lost 28, while the win percentage stands at 59.28%.”
2) VK is regarded as “the most successful Test captain for India, winning 40 matches in 68 Tests, and he is also among the best ODI captains with a win percentage of over 68%.”
3) RS is also regarded as “the most successful captain in T20Is for India with a total of 49 wins in 62 matches resulting in a win percentage of 79.03%.”
Nevertheless, “India has consistently performed well maintaining a strong record in T20 Internationals and avoiding consecutive defeats” under SKY’s leadership, while he has “captained 52 matches for India, winning 42 of them, resulting in a win percentage of 80.76%.”
