5 Captains With Most Away Wins In Test Cricket

Captaining the Test side of a country is regarded as the highest honor, the toughest job in cricket. Some players step their own game up as well, while even the greatest cricketers, such as Sachin Tendulkar, and Brian Lara, couldn’t achieve success while under the immense pressure of leading their Test team.

Over the past two decades, Australia, and India have had a stronghold over world cricket, while England, South Africa have also had occasions of glory. Now, the New Zealand team under Kane Williamson, the inaugural World Test Champions, would like to hold the torch.

Virat Kohli has become India’s most successful Test captain. While India remains unbeaten in his reign at home, he carries the ambition to record wins traveling overseas; Australia is checked off the list. How has he and other top captains fared outside their home comforts? Find out.

5 Captains With Most Away Wins In Test Cricket

5. Virat Kohli-14

Virat Kohli has turned the Indian side into a beast. An indomitable force in home conditions – India haven’t lost a single series under Kohli at home – and now with the help of the pace cartel, India are on their way to conquer the world. So far, till the Lord’s Test victory, India has won 14 away Tests under Kohli – the most for an Indian captain.

He has recorded Test series wins in Sri Lanka and West Indies, twice each, and Australia.

Kohli picked the side up from the ashes – from the number 7th ranking – and converted it into world-beaters – India ended as the number 1 Test side for the 5 consecutive seasons from 2017 to 2021. The Delhi-born also became the first Asian captain to register a Test series win in Australia. India then topped the WTC table.

4. Steve Waugh-19

Taking over the captaincy from Mark Taylor, who had taken from Allan Border, came with a huge amount of expectations on Steve Waugh. The Sydney-born lived up to it with Test series wins in Zimbabwe, New Zealand, South Africa, West Indies, and a white-wash of arch-rivals England in their own backyard.

Australia registered 19 away Test match wins under Steve Waugh, including wins in Asia; Waugh never conceded a series loss at home. Australia won 41 of the total 57 matches with Waugh at the helm – a staggering 71.92 percentage winning record.

3. Ricky Ponting-19

From Steve Waugh, Australia’s reins went to Ricky Ponting, who also led the country to 19 match wins the longest format of the game away from home. Ponting hammered Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka 3-0 in his first Test series as captain. What followed was another domination era of Australia on world cricket.

Resounding performances at home were punctuated by series wins in New Zealand (twice), South Africa (twice), Bangladesh, West Indies, in Ponting’s captaincy career, which, though, ended with a home series loss to England in 2010/11.

Overall, Ponting captained his country in 77 games, registering victories in 48 of them – the most for an Australian skipper. Australia won the Test mace in consecutive years until 2009 under Ponting.

2. Graeme Smith-23

The most successful – with 53 wins – and the most capped Test captain – with 109 caps – Graeme Smith unleashed an unprecedented era in South African cricket. With South Africa still reeling from the ruins of Hansie Cronje’s match-fixing scandal, Smith was handed the captain at the age of 22 in 2003.

He led the side remarkably on his first assignment in Bangladesh and returned with a 2-0 result. The next major away series win came in West Indies two years later.

Then followed series wins in Pakistan, Bangladesh, England(twice), Australia(twice), West Indies, New Zealand; the Proteas recorded a total of 23 matches wins away from home, in all parts of the world under the leadership of Graeme Smith. They held the Test mace in three consecutive years in 2013, 2014, and 2015.

1. Clive Lloyd-23

Clive Lloyd, who captained West Indies to the 1975 and 1979 World Cup titles, has the joint-most away wins in the longest format of the game as a captain alongside Graeme Smith. In Lloyd’s first series at the helm, West Indies defeated India in India.

He then shepherded the team to series triumphs in England (thrice), Australia(twice), Pakistan, India. West Indies enjoyed an era of superiority over the world under Lloyd.

Also Read: Reports Claim Unequal Pay For ‘The Test’ Documentary Reason For Rifts Between Coach Justin Langer And Australian Players