Graeme Smith vs Virat Kohli – who thrived more as a Test captain?
The retirement from Test cricket of Indian legend Virat Kohli has prompted many recollections of his career and deep dives into his statistics.
He was a phenomenal player, and even though he has called time on his Test career, he will continue to be a phenom in the ODI game and in franchise cricket.
Just how great was Kohli though? It’s a hard question to answer because it has so many parts. Undoubtedly though he was an excellent player. Let’s break it down a little further and compare Virat Kohli to Graeme Smith.
With 109 games as captain, South Africa’s Smith is the most capped Test skipper of all time.
Like Kohli he was a batsman and like Kohli they played in a similar era. Let’s see how their numbers stack up against each other.
Smith vs Kohli – Tests played
In total Smith played 117 Tests while Kohli played 123. Given that Smith ascended to the skipper’s role very early in his career, 109 of his Tests were as skipper (of those 108 were leading South Africa while one oversaw an ICC XI).
While Smith is the most capped Test skipper of all time, Kohli is seventh on the list with 68 games in charge.
Smith vs Kohli – Test runs scored
They played a similar number of Tests overall; 117 for Smith and 123 for Kohli. Despite Kohli edging the games played, Smith has more runs to his name. In total the Proteas left-hander scored 9265 runs in his Test career while Kohli scored 9230 (just 35 runs fewer in total).
That sees Smith come out with a better average (48.25 versus 46.85). Smith is also able to boast a better highest score, coming in with 277 runs compared to Kohli’s 254*.
What is interesting though is that when it comes to run scoring Kohli has a better record as skipper. The recently retired India captain has a notably better average when playing as captain – his average as skipper is 54.80 compared to his overall career average of 46.85.
Smith on the other hand has a slightly lower average as captain, although there is not much in it (47.83 as captain versus 48.25 overall). What that means is that While Smith’s career numbers are better than Kohli’s, the Indian skipper’s stats are better as a leader.
Smith vs Kohli – Test wins as captain
Smith won 53 of the Tests he captained while Kohli won 40, but that would be expected given the greater number of Tests Smith captained.
Win percentage is a better way to gauge success of leaders and in this regard, Smith is nowhere near as good as Kohli – it’s 48.62% versus 58.82%.
Smith vs Kohli – ICC Test rankings
Graeme Smith’s highest ever ranking on the ICC ranking system was second – he reached his highest number of ranking points, 843, at the start of 2010. Kohli meanwhile has been top of the rankings – he reached a whopping 937 ranking points on 22 August 2018.
He spent the bulk of 2018 and 2019 at the top of the rankings. Both captains led their countries to the summit of the ICC rankings.
Smith vs Kohli – incidentals (fielding and bowling)
Smith and Kohli were in their teams for their leadership and their runs. But they were both important fielders, usually in the cordon, as well.
The chunkier Smith was a sensational slip fielder bagging 169 catches in his career, while Kohli, who was also outstanding at slip, spent plenty of time in other positions as well – he claimed a total of 121 catches.
Both players were very much part-time when it comes to bowling. While Kohli never managed a test wicket, Smith finished his career with eight Test scalps. It’s not much to write home about though, his eight wickets came at a cost of 885 runs – an average of 110.62.
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