Virat Kohli became the 1st Indian cricketer to reach 4000 Test runs as captain during the 4th Test of the England series – 2018.
Another record to him to add to his insane Indian Test Captaincy stats.
By reaching the mark in his only 65th Test innings, Virat became the quickest Captian to reach 4000 Test runs. He overcame Brian Lara’s previous record of 4000 test runs in 71 Innings as Captain.
Here we see the top 5 quickest captains to reach 4000 Runs in Test Cricket while being the captain.
#5 Allan Border (83 Innings)
Allan Border, the first player to play 150 Test matches in cricket, had captained Australia for 93 Test matches in total. (93 Consecutive Test Matches as Captain!)
The 1987 World Cup-winning captain, Allan Border, was also the first to play 150 consecutive test matches for any team (Australia).
He held the world record for being played in 153 Consecutive Test Matches, which Alastair Cook later broke.
Allan Border’s tally of total test runs stands at 11,174, in which he had scored 6623 Runs being the captain of his team.
He is just behind Graeme Smith of South Africa as the most runs-scoring Test captain.
The former Aussies skipper reached the 4000 mark as captain in his 83rd Innings, which was 18 innings shorter than what Virat has taken to reach the mark.
#4 Greg Chappell (80 Innings)
Greg Chappell, who captained the Australian team during 1970 – 1984, had scored 4209 runs as Test Captain. And, it took him 80 Test innings to reach the mark of 4000 Test runs as captain.
G Chappell began his Captaincy debut with a century in each innings to win the first Test against the West Indies in his adopted hometown of Brisbane.
Controversially, the Australian captain was the reason behind the Under-arm bowling incident, one of the most controversial incidents in the history of Cricket.
He was also considered one of the best On-side(leg-side) players during his time.
#3 Ricky Ponting (75 Innings)
Arguably, one of the best captains in the 20th Century, Ricky Ponting – another Australian in this list, had taken 75 Innings to reach the mark.
Ricky Ponting had captained 77 Test Matches of the Australian team and scored 6542 runs with an average of 51.51 in those matches.
Ricky Ponting’s batting has been equally good being the captain and when not.
You can see, only his century conversion rate has come down after being the captain of the team. Otherwise, it looks pretty impressive with 50+ Average in both scenarios.
#2 Brian Lara (71 Innings)
Brian Lara’s average as Test Captain is 57.84, and it was as good as that.
He scored the one and only 400* – the highest individual score in Test cricket.
Brain Lara’s longest format stats are almost similar to Sachin Tendulkar’s records.
Lara has scored 11,953 runs in Tests; 4685 as captain, and it took him 71 Innings to reach 4000 Test runs as captain to be a part of this elite list.
#1 Virat Kohli (65 Innings)
Virat Kohli, the quickest ever to reach the mark of 4000 Test runs as captain, needed only 65 innings for this milestone.
He is also the youngest captain to score 4000 Test runs and quickest in days.
Virat Kohli also has the record for the most double-centuries by any Captain in Test Cricket.
He has 6 of them, and you can check them here –> Virat Kohli Double Centuries.
Wrapping it Up!
Virat Kohli’s average of 65.57 stands at the top for any captain who has scored more than 4000 test runs as captain.
With almost 4 to 5 years of Test cricket left for him, Virat Kohli might end up with the tag of “Most Runs as Captain” ever in the history of Test Cricket.
Interestingly, almost 50% of his total runs have come in the first three years, after becoming the captain, i.e. (2016, 2017, 2018)
To know how he has improved his game over the years, read Virat Kohli’s Test Stats year by year.
