Kohli’s rise, Root’s struggle: A data check on how captaincy has affected players in Test cricket

Captaincy is a double-edged sword. A skipper’s form slips under the radar if the team is winning, but their performances come under the magnifying glass if the team goes through a lean patch.

Two contemporary batting giants and captains of their respective countries – Virat Kohli and Joe Root – have had contrasting fortunes, in terms of personal form, in Test cricket this year. While Kohli has continued to pile on the runs for India, Root has been far from his best with the bat for England.

Leadership comes naturally to Kohli, whose personal form has been unaffected by the responsibility of captaincy. The same cannot be said about Root, though, whose average with the bat as England skipper has dipped significantly.

In the history of the game, there have been great players who have both struggled and excelled as captains. Rahul Dravid is one of India’s finest ever batsmen, but his average came down sharply when he led the team. Imran Khan inspired many Pakistani cricketers as a leader, and his form with the ball only got better with captaincy.

Then there are the likes of Clive Lloyd, Ricky Ponting, Steve Waugh, Sachin Tendulkar and more, whose personal form was independent of their influence as leaders. They performed consistently either way.

We look at the numbers and try to analyse which players were most affected – both positively and negatively – by the responsibility of captaining their country in Test cricket.

Captaincy records

(Note: The following tables have one common criteria: minimum 20 Tests as captain)

Let’s start off by taking a look at the batsmen with the highest averages as captains. These players have fine overall career averages too, but they only get better with the responsibility of leadership.

Now lets check the batsmen with the lowest averages as captains. These players led their respective sides for a considerable number of Tests, but their averages failed to impress.

Next up, a look at the bowlers who took the most number of wickets as captains. Expectedly, there are some great names in this list.

Now we take a look at the bowlers who bagged the least wickets as captains. It’s important to bear in mind here that in the history of the game, there have been far fewer bowlers than batsmen to have captained. Also, the following list only includes those captains who could make it into their team solely on the basis of their bowling talent, not their all-round skills.

The following table shows the names of the batsmen whose average increased the most when they played as captains. This list includes only pure batsmen, not all-rounders.

The next table takes a look at those whose average fell the most when they captained. Again, this list has only pure batsmen.

Now, a look at the bowlers who took their game a notch higher after being handed the captaincy role. The table below looks at those bowlers (including all-rounders) whose average improved the most after they were made captain.

Finally, let’s check those bowlers (including all-rounders) whose average worsened the most after they were made captain.

At the end of the day, there is a flip side to the numbers argument too. A captain needs to make sure he earns his place in the side as a player but there are some who transcend that argument too. England’s Brearley never quite cut it as a batsman in Test cricket but the manner in which he brought the best out of his team is legendary and perhaps the same can be said of India’s Sourav Ganguly as well (average of 37.66 as captain compared to his career average of 42.17).

But there is no denying that when one performs well as a player, captaincy also gets a fillip. Good performances with the bat or the ball give a captain the moral and perhaps natural authority to call the shots that little bit more.

(Statistics courtesy Statsguru on ESPNcricinfo.com)