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Being a captain in a cricket team is one of the toughest jobs in the game - the pressure that mounts with the continuous turns and bounces can really crack open a person mentally.
Cricket has had numerous gritty captains, who have managed to keep their form intact despite the additional burden of captaincy. While players like Sachin Tendulkar could not balance captaincy and form together, there have been others who have thrived when given the additional onus of strategizing and pulling tactics in place.
In ODIs, with 50 overs each-a-side, there can be various twists and turns that the captains have to take into account - through the years, we have seen several great batsmen double up as captains for their team and continue to be scoring machines for them.
Here are five Indian captains with most ODI hundreds:
#5 Mohammed Azharuddin - 4
Before being embroiled in the match-fixing saga that derailed the latter part of his career, Mohammed Azharuddin was a prolific run-scorer for Indian in ODIs, just as in Test matches. From 1990 to 1999, he captained India in 174 games, still the second highest in terms of numbers, and piled on 5239 runs at an average of 39.39.
Over the course of this, he also scored four hundreds, the best of them being the unbeaten 153 against Zimbabwe in the Pepsi Triangular Series in 1998, where he combined with Ajay Jadeja to hand India a 32-run win. His strike-rate was 78.46 during these 162 innings.
He lead India in the 1992, 1996, and 1999 World Cups as well and was one of the most successful captains to have led the Indian team in ODIs, that too at a time when they were not a big superpower and were still silent killers when it came to winning games in the 50-over format.
#4 Sachin Tendulkar - 6
People remember Sachin Tendulkar for his ill-fated stints as Team India captain in the late 1990s, which was surprising, considering he was known to be one of the smartest brains of the game. Numbers suggest that he did not have a very good record as a batsman while captaining the Indian side.
He captained India in as many as 73 ODIs between 1996 and 2000 and averaged just under 38, quite a few units lower than his overall batting average in the 50-over format. Known for his versatility, and for being a tremendous striker of the ball, Sachin scored six centuries, including the then career-best 186 he scored against New Zealand in Hyderabad in 1999, a feat that he bettered as a non-captain in 2010 with a double century.
His very first century as India captain was against Sri Lanka in 1996. He scored a total of 2454 runs in 70 innings.
#3 MS Dhoni - 6
Dhoni being third on the list, despite captaining India in 200 ODIs, might seem surprising, but the former Indian skipper has mostly batted in the middle order, where the chances of completing a hundred are less.
In 172 innings, he scored 6641 runs at an average of 53.55, with six hundreds to his name. His best score of 139 was the unbeaten ton he scored against Australia back in 2013 at Chandigarh.
He returned to captain India for a one-off game against Afghanistan, during his side's triumphant Asia Cup 2018 ride recently, but his last match as official captain was back in 2016 against New Zealand.
Dhoni's very first century as India captain came in 2008, against Hong Kong in the Asia Cup. The 139-run effort was his last 100 as India captain.
He also scored 47 fifties as ODI captain for India, the most by anyone.
#2 Sourav Ganguly - 11
Arguably the biggest reason behind Indian cricket's rise in the 2000s, Ganguly was one of the side's stars in ODIs, stitching several memorable partnerships with the likes of Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid. At the top of the order, he was a destructive force few could match with, and ended with over 5000 runs for the team while wearing the captaincy armband.
He scored a whopping 11 ODI hundreds for India as captain, scoring runs at a strike-rate of over 76 and averaged close to 39 with the bat.
His first innings as India captain in ODIs came at Jamshedpur in March 2000 against South Africa and he went on to hit four more centuries in the same year. The last of his ODI centuries as India captain was against Kenya in the 2003 World Cup.
He was the captain of the Indian side until 2005 when a controversy with Greg Chappell saw him out of the team.
#1 Virat Kohli - 14
The leader of the pack is, unsurprisingly, Virat Kohli, who is punching away centuries for fun these days. One of the best batsmen in world cricket for years now, and the most influential captain currently around, Kohli recently completed his 14th ODI hundred for India as captain and is set for many more for years to come.
His insane run with the bat has come at a time when MS Dhoni passed the captaincy baton, and he has not fallen short of maintaining the form across seasons and formats.
Kohli's first ODI hundred as India captain came in 2013, against West Indies, but the most fruitful year was 2017, when he posted six ODI centuries, just after Dhoni gave up captaincy in limited-overs.
With the World Cup in sight, India will be aiming for more from the 29-year-old.
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