Is Virat Kohli a better captain than MS Dhoni in Tests?

India scripted a historic win against South Africa in the third Test at Wanderers and finished the series with the scoreline reading 2-1. This win, in many ways, was special as the pitch was difficult to bat on and the Indian batsmen showed great intent on this pitch.

One of the main highlights of this win was the way Virat Kohli marshalled his troops. Kohli had to face severe criticism after losing the series in the first two Tests.

It seemed that South Africa would clean sweep the series but the Indian team staged a great fightback by winning the last Test by 63 runs.

Kohli has already equalled the record of 21 Test wins, that was achieved by Sourav Ganguly,and is only behind MS Dhoni's tally of 27 Test wins. Both Kohli and Dhoni have a different style of captaincy that has taken the Indian team to new heights.

Let us compare both the skippers.

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#1 Captaincy record

In Tests, Dhoni won 27 matches out of 60 matches (45% wins) and lost 18 Tests, drawing 15. Kohli, on the other hand, has won 21 Tests out of 35 (60% wins), in which he has lost 5 Tests and drawn 9 matches.

In overseas tours, Dhoni had won only six Tests out of 30 matches. His win percentage of only 20 % suggests that India struggled in overseas conditions under his captaincy.

In terms of overseas wins, Kohli has already surpassed his former captain, with 8 wins out of 16 Tests. Sourav Ganguly is leading the way with 11 overseas Test wins.

#2 Batting as Captain

While Dhoni had struggled to bat overseas, Kohli has led from the front with his batting

In the third Test against South Africa, Kohli surpassed Dhoni, in terms of most runs as captain. Dhoni had scored 3454 runs in 60 matches at an average of 40.63, with 5 centuries and 24 half-centuries.

Kohli has scored 3456 runs in 35 Tests at a whopping average of 65.20. He has scored 14 centuries as captain, which includes 6 double centuries. He now leads the chart with most runs as Indian captain.

#3 Captaincy style

At times, Dhoni went into a defensive mode, especially when playing in overseas conditions

Dhoni's overseas record as captain has not been very impressive. On numerous occasions, he allowed the match to drift away from winning positions because of his defensive field settings or by allowing the Indian bowlers to bowl defensive lines.

Kohli, who is known for his aggressive tactics, prefers to go for the kill instead of settling for a draw.

The last Test against South Africa was a good example of Kohli's captaincy, wherein he continued to keep the field up even when the score was 124/1, with South Africa requiring only 117 runs more for a win. In the end, it paid dividends for team India as they won the match.

#4 Team changes

Dhoni hardly made changes to the Test XI and would go with the same team

Virat Kohli, in his captaincy tenure, has made constant changes in his playing XI. He believes in maximizing the chances of winning the match over rigidity of the playing XI.

Sometimes, the changes were due to injury and at times it was Kohli's 'horses for courses' policy, where he picked up players who were in good form. The inclusion of Jasprit Bumrah in the Test series against South Africa turned to be a masterstroke as he was one of the successful bowlers for team India.

The constant changes have backfired at times, like when Kohli dropped Ajinkya Rahane and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, but most of the times he has been spot on with the team changes.

On the contrary, Dhoni was very rigid with the team selections. Despite losing matches he would go in with the same team and would never make any drastic changes, which led to his downfall at times.

#5 Backing fast bowlers

Kohli is known for backing fast bowlers

Under Virat Kohli, the dynamics of the Indian bowling have changed drastically, with a rejuvenation of the fast bowling department. Currently, Ishant Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammed Shami are all in brilliant form.

One of the highlights of the India-South Africa series was the bowlers picking up 20 wickets in the three Tests, which was not the case on previous tours. Also, Kohli went with four fast bowlers in Johannesberg and won the third Test match.

Dhoni was different from Kohli, as he always backed spin bowling and even in overseas tours, he went with two spinners. In his tenure, Zaheer Khan was the only reliable fast bowler but currently, Kohli has produced a lot of match winners in the fast bowling department.