Test cricket is the most challenging form of the game. There are no doubts regarding that claim. A player and a team require an incredible amount of hard work and skill to excel in test cricket internationally. Apart from the talent and the skill, far too many factors affect a team’s performance. Light, moisture, pitch, cloud cover, outfield, humidity and a host of other factors come into play. In recent years, the toss has taken the pole position when a team is considering their match strategy.
Recent trends suggest that the team that wins the toss has a higher chance of winning the match due to its ability to capitalize on the factors effectively. Some of the matches have become so one-sided that pundits have proposed to do away with the system of toss. Therefore, winning the toss has become vital for a team’s chances in winning the game. Kohli, in the past two years, has had awful luck with the toss. He has hardly been able to win any. We look at captains who have lost the toss most times in tests.
1. Virat Kohli
Unsurprisingly, Kohli is leading the list. He has an uninspiring record of losing the toss 35 times. In the first test against England of the current series, he called it wrong for the 35th time and now holds the record for losing the toss the most number of times. In the tosses that he has won, he has won 14 matches and lost 14 matches while six have resulted in a draw.
2. MS Dhoni
One less than Kohli, Dhoni lost the toss 34 times in his career. However, Kohli will continue to captain India for some time now. Dhoni was regarded as one of the best captains India had. However, when Dhoni lost the toss, India’s win percentage was over 50%. Of the 34 tosses that Dhoni lost, India won 18 of those games. Therefore, Dhoni had managed to reverse the trend of losing toss meant losing the match.
3. Sourav Ganguly
One more on the list of India’s greatest captains, Ganguly lost the toss 28 times. However, he too like Dhoni, was able to go against the trend and managed to win games after losing tosses. Off the 28 games in which Ganguly lost the toss, India won 12 matches, with a win percentage of a little below 50%, and further managed to draw 7 of them.
4. Sunil Gavaskar
Sunil Gavaskar is one of the few Test captains to have won more matches than losing despite calling the coin wrong. Gavaskar called the toss wrong 25 times while leading the Indian cricket team. In those 25 matches, India recorded five wins and four defeats. 16 out of the 25 Test matches ended in a stalemate. Thus, one can say losing the toss did not impact Gavaskar’s team on most occasions.
5. Kapil Dev
India’s first world cup winning captain, Kapil Dev lost the toss a total of 19 times in tests. He has the most unfavorable win ratio after calling it wrong at the toss. India could win only one of the 19 tests in which he called it wrong. India drew 12 of those matches and lost 5 of them.
