Is Virat Kohli A Better Test Captain Than Dhoni ? What Do the Numbers Reveal

While Virat Kohli's captaincy has seen India continuing to be a fortress at home, the Test team has considerably improved  their performances on their overseas tours, largely owing to the rise of a formidable pace attack

The Indian team has arguably been the most dominant side in Test cricket over the past few seasons. The sub continent powerhouse have simply been unconquerable at home, winning a record extending 12 successive series and have also proved their forte as good travelers with notable Test wins against Australia and South Africa on their turf. Virat Kohli has been breaking one record after another courtesy his stellar run as Indian Test captain in the longer format, drawing comparisons with former Indian skippers. With India's massive victory against Bangladesh in Indore and Kolkata Test, Kohli became the 4th most successful skipper in Test history with 33 wins under his belt. With a staggering 33 wins in 53 Tests as captain, Kohli is already by far India's most successful Test skipper in terms of matches won. His 62.26% win percentage is also by far the best by an Indian skipper in Test cricket. However stats do not reveal the complete picture and to read more into how good Kohli's captaincy has been as compared to former Indian skipper and his predecessor MS Dhoni, we need to get into a detailed analysis. Kohli slightly ahead of Dhoni in terms of Win Percentage as Test Captain At Home When MS Dhoni took over as Indian Test captain, the team enjoyed a great run at home, remaining unbeaten over nine consecutive bilateral series. Much like Kohli's staggering Test record on home soil, Dhoni's team looked unbeatable at home. Under Kohli, India have gone a step better to create a new world record of remaining unbeaten in 11 successive Test series at home. For the record, India won 70% of their Test matches at home under Dhoni, emerging victorious in  21 out of 30 Tests. Under Kohli's leadership , India's win percentage further climbs up  to an astounding 77% with 20 wins in 26 Tests and  just a solitary loss. Kohli's Track Record As Skipper In Overseas Tests Much Better Than Dhoni What comes out as the real differentiator between Kohli and Dhoni's captaincy is their overseas record as Test skippers. Dhoni's overseas Test record is not something he would like to boast about. Two series whitewash against Australia and England led to the writing on the wall, followed by a mass exodus of the nucleus of the team. On the contrary, Kohli's track record on overseas tours has been far better than Dhoni and helped the India team become the dominant side in red ball cricket. Under Kohli's captaincy, India has won 13 out of their 27 Tests abroad, which is a marked improvement from their track record under Dhoni's reign, where India won just 6 out of the 30 overseas Tests. Under Kohli's captaincy, India clinched their first ever Test series win in Australia (2-1 in 2019)  in nearly seven decades, besides coming really close to winning their first ever series against South Africa (1-2) in their backyard. Dhoni's only major claim to fame came with an overseas series wins against New Zealand (1-0 in 2008/09). It is notable that under both Kohli and Dhoni's captaincy, the Indian team registered wins against Sri Lanka and West Indies on their soil. Kohli and Dhoni Have Enjoyed A Potent Batting Line-up At Their Disposal While Dhoni enjoyed the luxury of having the 'Fab Five' namely; Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir in his batting armoury and a couple of really talented stroke-makers in Murali Vijay; Kohli was fortunate to inherit a well-established batting line-up which only got better with every Test they played under his captaincy. The likes of Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara and the skipper himself make for a solid and  compact middle order. While openers KL Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan had their share of inconsistencies up the order , the emergence of newly promoted opener Rohit Sharma and Mayank Agarwal has seemed to have rested India's long term opening woes for the time being. Kohli's team seems to have the slight depth in batting with all rounders in R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja coming into full bloom with the willow under his captaincy. Dhoni and Kohli Had World Class Spinners In Their Bowling Arsenal  Under both Dhoni and Kohli, India have been fortunate to have world class tweakers in their Test teams, who were instrumental in carving out many clinical wins and playing a pivotal role in India's dominance on home soil. While Harbhajan Singh, Ravichandran Ashwin, Amit Mishra and Pragyan Ojha formed a potent spin attack under Dhoni's command; Ashwin and Jadeja continued being Kohli's lethal spin twins in the Test arena over the past few seasons. Besides the ever dependable spin-duo, leg spinner Kuldeep Yadav has emerged as a force to reckon with in red ball cricket. Formidable Seam Attack Gives Kohli's team cutting Edge Over Dhoni  Under Dhoni's captaincy, India's seam attack was not as complete or balanced as what it is under Kohli. Zaheer Khan was the lone seamer with Test match pedigree and young Ishant Sharma blew hot and cold . The support cast was never quite there as Ashish Nehra, Ajit Agarkar, Munaf Patel, S Sreesanth and even Praveen Kumar  could never quite deliver the goods in red ball cricket. On the contrary, the Indian seam attack has bloomed in full measures with a plethora of seam luxuries in Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah and Umesh Yadav. In addition to the power packed seam lineup, there is medium pacer Hardik Pandya who has settled down well into a handy third seamer's role. In a nutshell, one can safely conclude that while Virat Kohli's captaincy has seen India continuing to be a fortress at home, the Test team has considerably improved  their performances while touring abroad, largely owing to the rise of a formidable pace attack which has been instrumental in carving out some memorable wins against quality oppositions in their backyard.