List of India’s Test Captains: Rishabh Pant will become India’s 38th Test captain as he will be leading the side in the second Test against South Africa, which is scheduled to start from November 22 at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati.
Pant will be the stand-in skipper in the absence of regular captain Shubman Gill, who has been ruled out of the second and final Test due to a neck injury. The 26-year-old has been released from the India squad and will now head to Mumbai for further assessment of his injury.
Gill, who picked up a neck injury in Kolkata, had taken over the captaincy earlier this year during the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy against England. His first assignment in England witnessed an incredible performance as India played out a 2-2 draw in the five-match series. His first series victory as India’s Test captain came during the home series against the West Indies. Having defeated the West Indies 2-0, India faced a massive setback with a 30-run defeat against South Africa in the first Test in Kolkata.
Full list of India’s Test captains – Number of matches
1. CK Nayudu (1932-1934) – 4
2. Maharajkumar of Vizianagram (1936-1936) – 3
3. IAK Pataudi (1946-1946) – 3
4. Lala Amarnath (1947-1952) – 15
5. Vijay Hazare (1951-1953) – 14
6. Vinoo Mankad (1955-1959) – 6
7. Ghulam Ahmed (1955-1959) – 3
8. Polly Umrigar (1955-1958) – 8
9. Hemu Adhikari (1959-1959) – 1
10. Datta Gaekwad (1959-1959) – 4
11. Pankaj Roy (1959-1959) – 1
12. GS Ramchand (1959-1960) – 5
13. Nari Contractor (1960-1962) – 12
14. MIAK Pataudi (1962-1975) – 40
15. Chandu Borde (1967-1967) – 1
16. Ajit Wadekar (1971-1974) – 16
17. S Venkataraghavan (1974-1979) – 5
18. Sunil Gavaskar (1976-1985) – 47
19. Bishan Bedi (1976-1978) – 22
20. Gundappa Viswanath (1980-1980) – 2
21. Kapil Dev (1983-1987) – 34
22. Dilip Vengsarkar (1987-1989) – 10
23. Ravi Shastri (1988-1988) – 1
24. K Srikkanth (1989-1989) – 4
25. Mohammad Azharuddin (1990-1999) – 47
26. Sachin Tendulkar (1996-2000) – 25
27. Sourav Ganguly (2000-2005) – 49
28. Rahul Dravid (2003-2007) – 25
29. Virender Sehwag (2005-2012) – 4
30. Anil Kumble (2007-2008) – 14
31. MS Dhoni (2008-2014) – 60
32. Virat Kohli (2014-2022) – 68
33. Ajinkya Rahane (2017-2021) – 6
34. KL Rahul (2022-2022) – 3
35. Rohit Sharma (2022-2024) – 24
36. Jasprit Bumrah (2022-2025) – 3
37. Shubman Gill (2025*) – 8
38. Rishabh Pant (2025*) – 1
“Definitely, a one-off match is not the best scenario as a captain. But at the same time, I’m really proud that BCCI has given me this opportunity. You know, whenever you’re leading your country, it’s the proudest moment,” Pant said in the pre-match press conference.
The left-handed wicketkeeper-batter, who scored 479 runs in 4 matches at an average of 68.43 during the England series, said he wants it to be a mix of old and new.
“I think being conventional also helps. And also adding that outside (out of) the box thinking definitely works out. So, you’re going to find, for me, it’s all about finding that balance between conventional and out-of-the-box thinking,” Pant said as he braced up for the tough battle against the Proteas, who have an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series.
India’s Test Squad: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Washington Sundar, Rishabh Pant(w/c), Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah, Devdutt Padikkal, Sai Sudharsan, Akash Deep