Top 10 Best Cricket Captains of All Time
Here are Some of the best cricket captains of all time who have elevated their teams to the peak and won them trophies and tournaments.
The captain must consider both his performance and that of the other ten members of his team. And then there are the leadership-related off-field problems. A wise leader will seize the situation, as the game might shift in a matter of overs.
Best Cricket Captains of All Time: Top 10 Most Successful Skippers
In the game of cricket, captaincy also carries a great deal of responsibility and difficulty. The greatest cricket captains have successfully guided their teams to victory while handling each of these issues with grace.
A captain’s role is vital to the success of the team as taking on the role of captain for the country is unquestionably the highest accomplishment in a cricketer’s career.
1) Ricky Ponting
Ricky Ponting is the greatest cricket captain in the world. Under his leadership, the Australian cricket team experienced a golden age and gained the reputation of being unbeatable in both forms.
Ponting is the only captain to have won more than three ICC trophies. Ricky Ponting won four ICC trophies: the ICC World Cup in 2003, the ICC World Cup in 2007, the ICC Champions Trophy in 2006, and the ICC Champions Trophy in 2009.
In the history of cricket, Ricky Ponting has won the most matches as captain (220). Even with the increased number of games, no captain has ever accomplished what Ponting did, which was to guide his side to a total of 220 victories.
Ponting leads the squad from the front as captain, topping the charts in run scoring as well. As captain of the Australian cricket team, Ponting amassed the greatest run total of any skipper in cricket history with 15,440 runs.
In ODI cricket, Ricky Ponting also holds the record for most victories as captain with 165 out of 230 games. Future cricket captains will always find inspiration in him, and his legacy will live on.
2) Clive Lloyd
Without question, one of the greatest and most inspirational cricket captains in the world is Sir Clive Lloyd of the West Indies. In cricket, he was the driving force behind the West Indies’ dominance in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The West Indian team was the best in the world under Clive Lloyd. His astute management approach transformed the role of captain.
In both formats, every side wanted to win against the West Indies when Clive Lloyd was their captain. When the West Indies team’s name was spoken, it used to be enough to make other teams freak out.
In international cricket, he was also among the most stunning and potent batsmen to witness. As the captain of the greatest squad in cricket history, Clive Lloyd will go down in history as one of the game’s greatest inspirational leaders.
3) Mahendra Singh Dhoni
In addition to being recognized as the greatest captain India has ever had, Mahendra Singh Dhoni is also thought to be among the top ODI captains worldwide.
Any captain would be proud to add MS Dhoni’s captaincy records to their name, considering the kind of accomplishments the players has accomplished throughout their career.
The greatest number of matches that Dhoni has led the Indian side in across all cricket formats (60 Tests, 199 ODIs, and 72 T20Is) is 331. He is the first skipper in cricket history to have won each of the three ICC One-Day International competitions.
In 2007, he defeated Pakistan by 5 runs to win the Twenty20 World Cup. By a margin of six wickets, he defeated Sri Lanka in the 2011 World Cup 50-overs.
Though his importance as an Indian cricketer extends beyond his career stats, Dhoni is also regarded as one of the greatest finishers and wicketkeepers in the world. As captain of the ODI team, Dhoni has smashed Ponting’s previous record with 126 sixes.
After Ricky Ponting, Dhoni has won 110 ODI matches, making him the second-most successful skipper in history. As captain, Dhoni amassed 6633 runs in ODIs with an incredible 53.92 average, second only to Ponting.
4) Imran Khan
The charismatic captain Imran Khan set a good example for others to follow. He had the invaluable ability to bring out the best in people and had a cricket intellect to match.
Under Imran, Pakistan was renowned for being difficult to defeat both domestically and abroad. And he was the one who turned a group of gifted but inconsistent cricket players into a formidable international force capable of challenging the formidable West Indies side of the 1980s on occasion.
Without a doubt, his biggest accomplishment was guiding Pakistan to their first World Cup triumph in 1992. Having memorably begged his squad to fight “like cornered tigers” early in the tournament when their hopes were hanging by a thread, he led the team in scoring with 72 against England in the 1992 World Cup final match.
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5) Steve Waugh
Steve Waugh is one of the world’s top cricket captains and a remarkably talented and consistent batsman. Australia developed a reputation for total domination under his direction. Waugh guided Australia to previously unheard-of levels of success.
During his tenure as captain, Waugh elevated Australia to the status of one of the greatest cricket teams ever. The Australian team, led by Steve Waugh, was capable, self-assured, aggressive, and possessed a never-say-die mentality.
They were driven by a strong sense of pride for the baggy green hat and had elevated the notions of attacking and counter-attacking cricket. He had a tremendous batting record for Australia, and when he became skipper, he elevated his game even further.
6) Graeme Smith
Without question, one of the greatest cricket captains the world has ever seen comes from South Africa Graeme Smith.
Graeme Smith was the youngest Test captain for South Africa and the fourth youngest in the world when he was appointed South African captain, having only played eight Test matches at the age of 22.
During his 149 ODI captaincy, Graeme Smith led South Africa to 92 wins and 51 losses. His 61 ODI victory % for South Africa is evidence of his outstanding leadership skills in ODI matches. As captain, Smith amassed the greatest test run total in test cricket history—8659—of any skipper in history.
In his 27 hundred in Test cricket, Smith had won 15 of those matches while leading the team. These are the captain’s most victories in centuries. In 117 tests, he participated and amassed 9265 runs at an average of 48.25. His career-best was 277 runs, with 38 fifties and 27 hundreds.
7) Arjuna Ranatunga
Arjuna Ranatunga is unquestionably regarded as Sri Lanka’s cricket pioneer. At a time when Sri Lanka wasn’t that strong and maybe shouldn’t have put up as much of a fight as they did, he was the captain and the one setting the example.
At times, his resilience in the face of intense criticism was truly amazing. In addition to being a fantastic player in both formats, he was among the greatest cricket captains in history.
In the changing room, his appearance and demeanor made a big impression. A major turning point for the Sri Lankan team came during the 1996 World Cup. After Sri Lanka’s World Cup victory, opinions on ODI cricket and how it should be played with aggression have shifted.
8) Sourav Ganguly
Without question, the most significant skipper in Indian cricket history is Sourav Ganguly. He brought the Indian Team together and boosted their spirits. In 2000, Ganguly was named captain of the Indian cricket team. His once-in-a-century leadership for India showed off its capabilities very fast.
Whether playing in a domestic or international series, India was a formidable force to be reckoned with under his leadership. The Indian squad won multiple games away from home while playing a fearless brand of cricket under Ganguly.
Ganguly is the fourth-highest scorer in history with 11 ODI centuries while captain of India. Furthermore, Ganguly has the record for being the only captain to achieve three centuries in a Champions Trophy and three centuries in a World Cup.
9) Eoin Morgan
Under Eoin Morgan’s captaincy, England achieved history in 2019 by winning the ODI World Cup for the first time, ending a 44-year wait for the country that invented this beautiful game of cricket.
When England defeated New Zealand at Lords in July 2019 to win their first ODI World Cup championship, Eoin Morgan will always be remembered.
In addition to the records and trophies he amassed, he deserves to go down in history as England’s greatest captain ever because of the way he led the team and changed the culture of one-day cricket.
Morgan was given total latitude to alter the New England one-day team’s mindset. It was acceptable to express oneself, take risks, and display strength as opposed to fear.
10) Virat Kohli
As one of the greatest batsmen in the world, Virat Kohli is the most successful Indian skipper in test cricket history. As captain, Virat Kohli achieved incredible success and set several record-breaking achievements.
On the cricket field, Virat lived up to his aggressive reputation, which also greatly boosted the team’s morale. From October 2016 to March 2020, when Virat Kohli captained the squad, India topped the ICC test rankings.
Out of 68 test matches, Kohli won 40—more than any other Indian captain has ever—lost 17, and drew 11. The only players with greater victory rates than Virat Kohli (58) are Steve Waugh (71), Ricky Ponting (62) and others.
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