Top 10 luckiest captains with the toss in Test history

No other sport can give such an extensive advantage to a side like cricket presents with the spin of a coin. In fact, it is only a simple call of head/tail that has decided the fate of many important matches in the past. Here, we have a look at the 10 captains whose calls turned right more often than not. Note 1: Only captains who have led their side in 25 or more matches are taken into consideration. Note 2: Toss W/L ratio – Number of tosses won / Number of matches as captain

#10 Mark Taylor

Toss W/L ratio: 0.52

Mark Taylor, arguably the greatest captain to have played the game, was not very lucky with the toss: 26 toss wins in 50 matches. He preferred to bat first on 21 occasions, losing only 6 of them.

#9 Imran Khan

Toss W/L ratio: 0.521

25 toss wins out of 48 matches puts Imran Khan at No. 9 in the list. In the 11 matches he opted to field after winning the toss, his team lost only once. When he won the toss, Pakistan won the match 9 times.

#8 Andrew Strauss

Toss W/L ratio: 0.54

Strauss was at the helm between 2006 and 2012. During that period, the left-handed opener won the toss 27 times in 50 Tests. His team could only emerge victorious in 7 of the 18 matches he opted to bat first.

#7 Steve Waugh

Toss W/L ratio: 0.544

Winning 31 out of 57 tosses, Steve Waugh sits at 7th place in the list. Surprisingly, his team emerged victorious on all the 11 instances he inserted the opposition in.

In the 15 matches Waugh captained out of Australia’s record 16-match consecutive winning run, he won 8 tosses and fielded 6 times.

#6 Graeme Smith

Toss W/L ratio: 0.55

Smith led South Africa in a record 109 Test matches, winning the toss in 60 of them. The left-hander decided to bat in 41 of those matches and tasted success in 17 of those, while 11 ended in a stalemate.

#5 Greg Chappell

Toss W/L ratio: 0.604

The Australian batting great won 29 of the 48 coin tosses during his captaincy tenure between 1975-83. The skipper chose to field 14 times and won 8 of those.

#4 Mohammad Azharuddin

Toss W/L ratio: 0.617

The former Indian captain managed to get it right 29 times in his 47 Tests as skipper. He preferred to make the first use of the pitch in 20 of those matches and was successful 10 times. However, he was not able to win even a single match when he invited the opponents to bat.

#3 Peter May

Toss W/L ratio: 0.634

May was the English captain between 1955-61 and is the third most luckiest captain in terms of toss in the Test cricket history. The Surrey cricketer has 26 toss wins in 41 matches. Quite remarkably, he has chosen to bat 25 times.

In the only occasion he chose to field, his side lost by 10 wickets against Australia at Adelaide, 1959. On the other hand, he managed to deny opposition a win in the 22 times he opted to bat first.

#2 Sanath Jayasuriya

Toss W/L ratio: 0.658

The aggressive left-hander was fortunate enough to win the toss 25 times, out of which he chose to bat 13 times, in the 38 matches he captained Sri Lanka. The islanders were able to win 10 of those 25 matches.

#1 Gary Sobers

Toss W/L ratio: 0.692

The Caribbean great captained West Indies in 39 matches between 1965-1972 and has won the toss in 27 of them. However, his team has emerged victorious in only eight of those matches.

Another interesting fact is that Sobers chose to bat 23 times. Sydney, 1969; Auckland 1969; Kingston 1971; and Port of Spain, 1972 were the only four occasions Sobers invited the opposition to take first strike.