Since the time Virat Kohli has taken over as the Indian captain, India’s performance in the bilateral series in all formats of the game has been exemplary, particularly in ODI cricket.
The men in blue might not have won an ICC trophy yet under Virat’s captaincy, but most of the time when they have played a bilateral ODI series home or away, they have managed to pass the test with flying colors in all conditions and that’s one of the reasons why Virat’s win percentage so far has been the highest among all the Indian captains.
In his 3-year captaincy stint so far, Virat has lost only 4 bilateral series as an Indian ODI captain. Here are the 4 of them –
1. Against England (2018)
Although England has been the best team in the world in white-ball cricket for quite some time now, India would actually have been quite disappointed to lose that series as they had a terrific start to the England tour before that.
They had beaten England in the T20I series by 2-1 to start the tour with a bang and they, thereafter, beat the three lions in the first game of the 3-match ODI series as well to take a 1-0 lead. Kuldeep Yadav was in the middle of a dream run and it seemed as if he would win India the ODI series as well, but England, courtesy back to back hundreds by Joe Root, bounced back and won the last two games to clinch the series 2-1.
2. Against Australia (2019)
This was another series where India was leading by 2-1 at the end of the third game and could have clinched the series in the 4th game itself. They were, in fact, in a position to do so as well, but a breathtaking knock by Ashton Turner down the order helped Australia pull off an absolute heist in the 4th game to level the series 2-2 and then they carried that momentum in the decider to win the series 3-2.
It was a shocking loss for India because that Australian team didn’t have the services of Steve Smith and David Warner at that stage and India had walked into that series as heavy favourites, but they couldn’t quite pull it off.
3. Against New Zealand (2020)
This was a series where India was completely outplayed by the opposition in all departments and they ended up losing that series by 3-0. Never at any stage in any of the three games did India look like having a sniff. New Zealand were on top right through and were the deserving winners.
But, even the result of that series was a little bit surprising because India had clean-swept New Zealand by 5-0 in the T20I series which was held just before the ODI series and they had the momentum in their favour going into the ODIs, but New Zealand turned the tide remarkably well.
4. Against Australia (2020)
This was the most recent series that India lost a week ago and although the result of this series was 2-1 which suggests the series was close, it wasn’t. Australia were actually a far better side in the first two games and won those two games pretty much one-sided to take an unassailable lead of 2-0.
India put up a fight in the third game and restored some pride with a consolation win, but overall, they wouldn’t be very happy with their performance in the series.
