Most successful ODI captain of India: MS Dhoni’s 110 wins, and Rohit Sharma’s win percentage
MS Dhoni won 110 of his 200 ODIs as India captain, more than anyone else. On win percentage the leader is now Rohit Sharma on 77.27, not Virat Kohli. All 28 India ODI captains, ranked.
Jan 16, 2022 · Updated Sep 7, 2026
MS Dhoni is India’s most successful ODI captain, with 110 wins from 200 matches between 2007 and 2018. He is the only India captain to reach 100 ODI wins, and no other Indian is within 20 of him.
On win percentage the answer changed while this page was not looking. Rohit Sharma leads on 77.27% — 42 wins from 56 matches — ahead of Virat Kohli’s 70.43%. India have now had 28 ODI captains in all.
Most successful ODI captain of India
Every man who has captained India in a one-day international, ranked by wins, complete to 7 September 2026. Source: ESPNcricinfo’s India ODI captaincy record. Ties on wins are broken by win percentage.
| Captain | Span | Matches | Won | Lost | Tied | No result | Win % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MS Dhoni | 2007-2018 | 200 | 110 | 74 | 5 | 11 | 59.52 |
| Mohammad Azharuddin | 1990-1999 | 174 | 90 | 76 | 2 | 6 | 54.16 |
| Sourav Ganguly | 1999-2005 | 146 | 76 | 65 | 0 | 5 | 53.90 |
| Virat Kohli | 2013-2021 | 95 | 65 | 27 | 1 | 2 | 70.43 |
| Rohit Sharma | 2017-2025 | 56 | 42 | 12 | 1 | 1 | 77.27 |
| Rahul Dravid | 2000-2007 | 79 | 42 | 33 | 0 | 4 | 56.00 |
| Kapil Dev | 1982-1987 | 74 | 39 | 33 | 0 | 2 | 54.16 |
| Sachin Tendulkar | 1996-2000 | 73 | 23 | 43 | 1 | 6 | 35.07 |
| Sunil Gavaskar | 1980-1985 | 37 | 14 | 21 | 0 | 2 | 40.00 |
| KL Rahul | 2022-2025 | 15 | 10 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 66.66 |
| Ajay Jadeja | 1998-1999 | 13 | 8 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 61.53 |
| Dilip Vengsarkar | 1987-1989 | 18 | 8 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 44.44 |
| Shikhar Dhawan | 2021-2022 | 12 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 70.00 |
| Virender Sehwag | 2003-2012 | 12 | 7 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 58.33 |
| Gautam Gambhir | 2010-2011 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 100.00 |
| Suresh Raina | 2010-2014 | 12 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 54.54 |
| Shubman Gill | 2025-2026 | 12 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 50.00 |
| Ravi Shastri | 1987-1991 | 11 | 4 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 36.36 |
| Kris Srikkanth | 1989-1989 | 13 | 4 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 33.33 |
| Ajinkya Rahane | 2015-2015 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 100.00 |
| Hardik Pandya | 2023-2023 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 66.66 |
| Anil Kumble | 2002-2002 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 100.00 |
| Bishan Singh Bedi | 1976-1978 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 25.00 |
| S Venkataraghavan | 1975-1979 | 7 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 14.28 |
| Syed Kirmani | 1983-1983 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Gundappa Viswanath | 1981-1981 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Ajit Wadekar | 1974-1974 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Mohinder Amarnath | 1984-1984 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | – |
How the win percentage is worked out
It is not simply wins divided by matches. A tie counts as half a win and a no-result is taken out of the denominator altogether, which is why Dhoni’s figure is 59.52 rather than 55. The sum on his row is (110 + 2.5) ÷ (200 − 11) = 59.52%, and every row in the table above answers to the same arithmetic.
It matters more than it sounds. Dhoni’s 11 no-results and Sachin Tendulkar’s six are enough to move both men by several points, and a captain with one washed-out match and nothing else — Mohinder Amarnath, in 1984 — has no win percentage at all.
MS Dhoni: 110 wins
Dhoni took over from Rahul Dravid in 2007 and led India in 200 ODIs over eleven years, more than any other Indian. He won the 2011 World Cup, beating Sri Lanka by six wickets at the Wankhede on 2 April 2011, and the 2013 Champions Trophy, where India won all five matches and beat England by five runs at Edgbaston in the final.
Worldwide he is second. Ricky Ponting won 165 ODIs as captain, Dhoni 110 and Allan Border 107; the full picture is in our list of the most successful ODI captains of all nations.
He was also a considerable batter while doing it: 6,641 runs at 53.55 as captain, with 48 not-outs and a best of 139 not out. Only his win column is more striking than that average.
Rohit Sharma: the best win percentage
Rohit’s 42 wins from 56 matches give him 77.27%, the highest of any India captain who has led in more than fifteen ODIs. He lost the 2023 World Cup final to Australia at Ahmedabad, having won the ten matches before it, and then won the 2025 Champions Trophy — five matches in Dubai, five wins, New Zealand beaten by four wickets in the final on 9 March 2025.
As captain he scored 2,506 runs at 52.20 with a strike rate of 111.97, including 208 not out from 153 balls against Sri Lanka at Mohali in December 2017. Kohli, Dhoni and Rohit are the only India captains to have scored 2,500 runs in charge at an average above 50. The highest score by an India captain in an ODI is not his, though: Virender Sehwag made 219 against the West Indies at Indore in 2011, in one of his twelve matches in charge.
Virat Kohli: the batting record no captain has matched
Kohli won 65 of 95 ODIs as captain, fourth on India’s list, and until Rohit passed him he had the best win percentage. What has not been passed is his batting: 5,449 runs at an average of 72.65, which is the highest average of any captain in ODI history with 2,000 or more runs in charge. AB de Villiers is next on 63.94.
His 21 hundreds as captain are second only to Ponting’s 22, and no other captain has more than 13.
The perfect records, and why they are not the answer
Three India captains have a 100% record: Gautam Gambhir (six wins from six, 2010-11), Ajinkya Rahane (three from three, 2015) and Anil Kumble (one from one, 2002). All three are real, and none of them is what the question means. Six matches is a good fortnight, not a captaincy record; that is why this page ranks on wins and prints the sample size next to every percentage.
Who captains India in ODIs now
Shubman Gill is the only man on this list whose captaincy span reaches 2026: twelve matches, six won and six lost, starting in 2025. Rohit Sharma’s span ends in 2025 and KL Rahul’s, at fifteen matches and ten wins, ends there too. Gill has batted well while doing it: 604 runs at 67.11, behind only Kohli’s 72.65 among India captains with more than six matches in charge.
For context on the whole record: India have played 1,075 ODIs, winning 575, losing 447, with nine ties and 44 no-results.
A note on Sourav Ganguly’s 146
Cricinfo’s worldwide captaincy list credits Ganguly with 147 matches and 76 wins, one more match than the table above. The extra game is an Asia XI fixture, not an India one. On India duty he captained 146 ODIs, winning 76 and losing 65, which is the figure that belongs on a page about India’s captains. The same thing inflates Ricky Ponting’s row, which includes his ICC World XI matches.
Common questions
Who is the most successful ODI captain of India? MS Dhoni, with 110 wins from 200 matches between 2007 and 2018.
Which India captain has the best win percentage in ODIs? Rohit Sharma, on 77.27% from 56 matches. Virat Kohli is second on 70.43%.
How many captains have India had in ODIs? Twenty-eight, from Ajit Wadekar in 1974 to Shubman Gill.
Which India captains have won an ICC one-day trophy? Kapil Dev (1983 World Cup), MS Dhoni (2011 World Cup and 2013 Champions Trophy) and Rohit Sharma (2025 Champions Trophy).
Who has the most runs as India’s ODI captain? MS Dhoni, 6,641 at 53.55. Virat Kohli has the highest average, 72.65.
See also our lists of the most successful ODI captains, the Cricket World Cup winners and the ICC Champions Trophy winners.
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Featured photo: AFP / Alexander Joe