Virat Kohli's ODI captaincy record ahead of ICC World Cup

Image Credits: Twitter/@BCCI

Virat Kohli will lead the Indian cricket team at the International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup slated to take place in England and Wales from May 30 to July 14.

Opening batsman Rohit Sharma will serve as his deputy, according to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) which announced the 15-member ODI squad for the tournament on April 15.

With the 30-year-old swashbuckling batsman all set to captain the Men in Blue in the ICC World Cup for the first time, let us have a look at some of his ODI captaincy records heading into the marquee tournament. 

# Kohli took over the role of the limited-overs captain when former Indian skipper and wicketkeeper-batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni stepped down from the 

position in 2017 and since then, he has led the Men in Blue to 49 wins in 68 matches played so far under his reins. 

# Kohli, who is indeed one of the most destructive batsmen in the world, has led India to their most consecutive bilateral ODI series win. He guided the Men 

in Blue to seven bilateral series wins in a row from 2017 to 2018, beginning with England (2-1), then West Indies (3-1), Sri Lanka (5-0), Australia (4-1), New 

Zealand (2-1), Sri Lanka (2-1) and South Africa (5-1).

# The Indian skipper also equalled MS Dhoni's record of nine successive ODI wins. Kohli's predecessor had registered the same feat between November 

2008 and February 2009.

# Virat Kohli also holds the records of most consecutive ODI series wins at home. With five series wins under his belt, Kohli became the first Indian captain ever to achieve the feat. Former skippers Mohammad Azharuddin and MS Dhoni had four consecutive series wins each in their tally.

# Kohli also holds the record of fastest to reach the 1000-run mark as ODI captain. He achieved the feat in his 17th innings during the third ODI of the five-match series against England in January 2017, thus breaking AB de Villiers’ record of 18 innings.

# He is also the fastest batsman to reach  2,000 ODI runs (36) and 3,000 ODI runs (49) as skipper. 

# In 2018, Kohli guided the Men in Blue to historic ODI series triumph on South African soil. By sealing the six-match ODI series win by 5-1,  the Men in Blue clinched their first-ever series win against South Africa at the latter's home turf since their first tour to the country in 1992.

# Earlier this year, he added yet another feather in his cap by leading India to ODI series wins in Australia 2-1 and New Zealand 3-1.

# Overall, Kohli has scored a total of 10,843 runs including 41 hundreds and 49 fifties in 227 ODIs he has played so far at a strike rate of 93.

India will kick off their campaign at the 2019 ICC World Cup against South Africa on June 5.