Who is the Best Cricket Captain of the World? – VALID Answer

Cricket is a sport that requires great teamwork and coordination to bring out success. Each player must bring out the best when working towards victory in a match a series or a tournament.

Leadership plays a very important role in cricket as it takes lots of energy and group coordination to get the job done to end up as winners. The captain should be a frontrunner who can bring out the best in his team.

A good captain must have strong leadership skills, strategic and spontaneous thinking, and excellent communication should also be able to inspire the team, make decisions under pressure, and adapt.

Best Cricket Captain of All Times

With various players from different countries evolving as the best captains of their time, we have derived the best cricket captain based on various categories like winning percentage, most ICC trophies, and most wins across formats.

Best Cricket Captain based on Winning Percentage

The best cricket captain based on winning percentage is Australian legend Ricky Ponting, who has the highest winning percentage, 67.9, after captaining the side for 324 matches. Under his captaincy, the side has won 220 matches, tied 2 matches, 13 draws, and 77 losses.

Comparatively, he outmatched the records of big captains like India’s MS Dhoni, New Zealand’s Stephen Fleming, and South Africa’s Graeme Smith.

*Listed based on the matches captained

Best Cricket Captain based on ICC Trophies

The Best Cricket Captain based on ICC Trophies is the former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting is leading the chart with four ICC titles under his leadership. Ponting won two ICC events consecutively during the 2003 World Cup in South Africa and the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies.

The side remained as unbeaten in those World Cups. He also won the ICC Champions Trophy in 2006 and 2009 as captain.

*Listed based on the number of ICC trophies

Best Cricket Captain based on People’s Favorites

The former Indian skipper MS Dhoni is considered to be one of the best captains in history. Known for his calmness and leadership skills, MSD had an uninhibited style, managing pressure and leading the side to success on various occasions in ICC tournaments through his instinct.

Under his captaincy, India reached the new heights as never before. MS Dhoni led the Indian Cricket team to emerge victorious in three ICC events – the 2007 T20 World Cup, the 2011 ODI World Cup, and the 2013 Champions Trophy also remains the only captain to win all three ICC Trophies. 

List of Smart Captains in Cricket History

Cricket sport has seen various smart captains throughout its varied history, but certain names come to mind who were known for their smartness and captaincy skills. The smartest of them have gone on to have a long run as leaders. The game can change within a couple of overs and it’s about seizing the moment for a smart leader.

MS Dhoni

While speaking about the captaincy skills, MS Dhoni comes to the talk that most of the current captains look up to him. During India’s inaugural T20 World Cup with a team filled with youngsters, he led the side to win the tournament where his legacy started.

He remained to be captain until January 2017 and handed his reign to Virat Kohli.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni called GOAT (Greatest of All Time) has a success rate of 85.71% in IPL and has 65% as international captain while taking DRS which shows his accuracy as captain.

He also has the record for the fastest stumping in history at 0.08 seconds when he dismissed West Indies player Keemo Paul in an ODI match.

Graeme Smith 

Despite not winning a World Cup as captain even once, his captaincy stint has done a lot of good. He started his captaincy at the age of 22 a very young age to lead a side, but proved to be a very good captain.

Graeme Smith went on to become the most successful Test captain of all time with 53 wins. He has a pretty solid record in ODIs with 163 wins. His calm head has proved his legacy as one of the smartest captains ever.

He is known for boarding in the struggling side and steadying them. Taking over the captaincy at the young age of 22, he leads the side across formats and notably an unbeaten streak in away tests between 2007 and 2013.

Rohit Sharma 

The Indian skipper Rohit Sharma is also considered as one of the smartest captains in the Indian history. He was the mastermind behind India’s victory in the T20 World Cup 2024 in the USA and West Indies. India remained the only unbeaten team in the T20 World Cup campaign.

Under his captaincy, India was one step ahead of winning the WTC 2021-23 cycle and ODI World Cup 2023, but suffered defeat at the hands of Australia in both tournaments’ finals.

Ricky Ponting 

While talking about success as captain, Ricky Ponting sits on the top comfortably when he led Australia in an era when the side was dominating his team titled as the best team in the world.

Being an aggressive captain, Ponting always looked for a dominating win on his team’s part and hated losing. Rickiy pointing stood leading the team if it meant he would have to take all the blame for Australia’s losses.

Ricky Ponting is a great tactical captain and can analyze the game, giving great field suggestions which made him one of the smartest captains of cricket. He was aggressive as a captain and always led from the front.

He would always look for a dominant win and hated losing. He was confident even during the tough times he suffered in late 2000 due to being out of form.

Virat Kohli 

Virat Kohli gave his all to the side as leader when he captained the side. He knows perseverance and hard effort. His unshakable ethics and aggression have positioned him as one of the best cricketers in the world.

High standards characterize his leadership style, as he pushes himself and the team to their limits.

Kohli’s average is the best among the six captains with 5,000 plus runs. His batting average as captain (54.80) is way higher than his average as a batter (41.13).

Kohli has led India on 213 matches where the side secured 135 wins and has a winning percentage of 63.38. He has also captained the side in the Border Gavaskar Trophy between 2016-17 and 2020 where India won the trophy three times.

Stephen Fleming

The New Zealand cricketer Stephen Fleming is known for his greatest legacies as a captain as well as a player. Stephen Fleming is the first Kiwi cricketer to go past 7k runs in Test cricket. having played 111 matches to reach the mark.

He was considered a strategist who could turn around the conditions. Despite not having many match-winners, his captaincy period created some huge players who shined in their time.

He took over the captaincy at a young age with lots of grace and tactical moves, which impressed everyone, and became the regular captain. The New Zealand cricket team’s journey begins with one of the smartest leaders and captains that this game has ever seen.

Sourav Ganguly

Before MS Dhoni, Sourav Ganguly led the Indian team taking over the reigns from Sachin Tendulkar in 2000, at a time when Indian cricket struggled during the transition. Early on, he helped the side to reach the finals of the Champions Trophy where concluded the tournament as the highest run-getter in the entire tournament.

He elevated some youngsters like Sehwag, Yuvraj, Harbhajan, and Zaheer Khan who became crucial players during the time of MS Dhoni’s era. But his era as captain ended in 2005 due to a controversial axing. He was again controversially axed in early 2008 even though he had a fantastic run in both formats in 2007.

Whenever he faced a hurdle or challenge, he became a better version of himself. After being dropped twice in the Indian team and domestic cricket, his comeback was stunning.

He has captained two sets of players and also has managed a balance between two groups. He never hesitates to take the calculated risk and has the winner’s mindset.

Best Cricket Captains Across Formats

Some countries opt for a different captain in different formats to manage workload. Coming to the best cricket captains across formats, MS Dhoni has the longer captaincy stint as he led the side in 332 matches across all formats.

But Australia’s Ricky Ponting has the highest winning percentage despite having captained less when compared to MS Dhoni.

Stephen Fleming, Graeme Smith, and Allan Border are the other players who have captained their respective sides in most matches when combined across all three formats.