After making an impressive start to his captaincy reign in limited-overs cricket, Rohit Sharma made a memorable start as India cricket team’s full-time Test captain. 

Rohit Sharma-led India thrashed Sri Lanka by 238 runs in the second Test at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru to complete a 2-0 whitewash over the Lankan Tigers.

The Nagpur-born cricketer is the 35th player to lead India in Test cricket and the eighth oldest debutant Test skipper.

Oldest Indian on Test captaincy debut

Player Age Opposition Ground Date
Hemu Adhikari  39y 190d West Indies Delhi 06 February 1959
Vinoo Mankad  37y 264d Pakistan Dhaka 01 January 1955
Anil Kumble 37y 36d Pakistan Delhi 22 November 2007
CK Nayudu  36y 238d England Lord's  25 June 1932
Vijay Hazare  36y 236d England Delhi 02 November 1951
Nawab of Pataudi Snr 36y 98d England Lord's  22 June 1946
Lala Amarnath  36y 78d Australia Brisbane 28 November 1947
Rohit Sharma  34y 308d Sri Lanka Mohali 04 March 2022
Chandu Borde 33y 155d  Australia Adelaide 23 December 1967
Ghulam Ahmed 33y 138d New Zealand Hyderabad (Deccan) 19 November 1955

After Rohit won the toss and elected to bat first, India rode on Ravindra Jadeja’s unbeaten 175 and fifties from Rishabh Pant (96), Ravichandran Ashwin (61) and Hanuma Vihari (58) to power the hosts to 574/8d in their first innings.

In reply, Sri Lanka were bowled out for 174 in their first innings as Rohit-led India decided to enforce the follow-on. In the second innings as well, the visitors lost wickets at regular intervals as they were bundled out for 178 in the second innings, leading to the hosts winning the Test by an innings and 222 runs.

For India, star all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja was the wrecker-in-chief as he picked nine wickets for 87 runs over two innings of the first Test.

With this massive win, Rohit became just the second Indian Test captain to win a match by an innings on captaincy debut in the longest format of the game. Late cricketer Polly Umrigar was the first India captain to secure a Test win by an innings on Test debut.

Under Umrigar’s captaincy, India defeated New Zealand by an innings and 27 runs in 1955.

Largest victory on Test captaincy debut

Player Margin Opposition Ground Year
Ridley Jacobs (WI) inns & 310 runs Bangladesh Dhaka 2002
Rohit Sharma (IND) inns & 222 runs Sri Lanka Mohali 2022
Monty Bowden (ENG) inns & 202 runs South Africa Cape Town 1889
Lord Hawke (ENG) inns & 197 runs South Africa Johannesburg 1896
Ian Johnson (AUS) inns & 154 runs England Brisbane 1954

Interestingly, Rohit became the 10th Indian captain to secure a Test win on captaincy debut.

Rohit Sharma Test captaincy record

Since taking over the captaincy from Virat Kohli, who stepped down from the post after suffering 1-2 defeat against South Africa in the rainbow nation in January, Rohit has led India in three Tests so far, and returned victorious thrice.

Matches

Won

Lost

Tied

NR

Win%

3

3

0

0

0

100

 Featured photo: PRAKASH SINGH / AFP