| ODI captain | Period | ODIs | Wins | Lost | Tied/NR | Win/loss % |
| 1. A Wadekar | 1974 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0/0 | 0.00/100.00% |
| 2. S Venkataraghavan | 1975-79 | 7 | 1 | 6 | 0/0 | 14.28/85.71% |
| 3. BS Bedi | 1976-78 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0/0 | 25.00/75.00% |
| 4. S Gavaskar | 1980-85 | 37 | 14 | 21 | 0/2 | 37.83/56.75% |
| 5. G Viswanath | 1981 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0/0 | 0.00/100.00% |
| 6. Kapil Dev | 1982-87 | 74 | 39 | 33 | 0/2 | 52.70/44.59% |
| 7. Syed Kirmani | 1983 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0/0 | 0.00/100.00% |
| 8. M Amarnath | 1984 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0/1 | N/A |
| 9. R Shastri | 1987-91 | 11 | 4 | 7 | 0/0 | 36.36/63.63% |
| 10. D Vengsarkar | 1987-89 | 18 | 8 | 10 | 0/0 | 44.44/55.55% |
| 11. K Srikkanth | 1989 | 13 | 4 | 8 | 0/1 | 30.76/61.53% |
| 12. M Azharuddin | 1990-99 | 174 | 90 | 76 | 2/6 | 51.72/43.67% |
| 13. S Tendulkar | 1996-2000 | 73 | 23 | 43 | 1/6 | 31.50/58.90% |
| 14. A Jadeja | 1998-99 | 13 | 8 | 5 | 0/0 | 61.53/38.46% |
| 15. S Ganguly | 1999-2005 | 146 | 76 | 65 | 0/5 | 52.05/44.52% |
| 16. R Dravid | 2000-07 | 79 | 42 | 33 | 0/4 | 53.16/41.77% |
| 17. A Kumble | 2002 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0/0 | 100.00/0.00% |
| 18. V Sehwag | 2003-12 | 12 | 7 | 5 | 0/0 | 58.33/41.66% |
| 19. MS Dhoni | 2007-16 | 200 | 110 | 74 | 5/11 | 55.00/37.00% |
| 20. S Raina | 2010-14 | 12 | 6 | 5 | 0/1 | 50.00/41.66% |
| 21. G Gambhir | 2010-11 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0/0 | 100.00/0.00% |
| 22. V Kohli | 2013-present | 95 | 65 | 27 | 1/2 | 68.42/28.42% |
| 23. A Rahane | 2015 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0/0 | 100.00/0.00% |
| 24. R Sharma | 2018-19 | 10 | 8 | 2 | 0/0 | 80.00/22.00% |
Last update: 28 Mar 2021
Check out: Longest-version captains, Teams stats
MS Dhoni is India’s most successful ODI captain to date, having relinquished his captaincy in January 2017, less than six years after leading the country to the pinnacle of one-day cricket by winning the 2011 World Cup. This was followed by India’s semi-final finish at the 2015 World Cup, which was held in Australia and New Zealand.
The 2011 World Cup won on home soil is not the only major ODI success under Dhoni’s captaincy, which also yielded the 2013 Champions Trophy that was won on English soil, beating the home team in a pulsating final at Edgbaston in Birmingham. Under Dhoni, India also won the Asia Cup twice, in 2010 and 2016. Dhoni led India in 200 ODIs and had a win percentage of 55 (110 wins) when he passed on the baton to Virat Kohli.
Kohli’s ODI captaincy record speaks for itself. He has recorded over 60 wins in over 90 matches as captain, securing a win percentage of just under 70. Under his captaincy, India equalled Australia’s record for the most consecutive bilateral series wins, while the 5-1 ODI series win on South African soil in early-2018 and the 2-1 ODI series win in Australia in early-2019 were India’s first ODI bilateral series wins in the two countries.
It speaks volumes of how Kohli has transformed the team since taking over permanently from Dhoni. Much of India’s transformation under Kohli has come through his own phenomenal success and numbers as an ODI batsman. Kohli has scored 15 ODI centuries since the start of 2017 and India have won on 11 of those occasions; they lost thrice and one match was tied.
Kapil Dev is the other Indian World Cup-winning captain, leading the country to victory over the fabled West Indies team in the 1983 final at Lord’s.
Mohammad Azharuddin and Sourav Ganguly were integral to the rise of Indian cricket in the 1990s and early-2000s. Under Azharuddin, India reached the semi-finals of the 1996 Cricket World Cup on home soil, while Ganguly led India to the final of the 2003 World Cup, only to be crushed by 125 runs by Australia in the Johannesburg final.
The highlight of Ganguly’s ODI captaincy was him leading India to victory in the 2002 NatWest Trophy final, with Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif helping India recover from a precarious 145 for five before Kaif finished off the match in the company of Zaheer Khan. Ganguly’s shirt-flinging on the Lord’s balcony, in response to Andrew Flintoff taking off his shirt after leading England to a series-leveling win over India, remains an unforgettable moment.
In between Azharuddin and Ganguly’s captaincy stints, Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid captained India with different degrees of success. Suresh Raina, Virender Sehwag, Anil Kumble and now Rohit Sharma, have also led India in a small number of ODIs, with a high win percentage. Ajit Wadekar was India’s first ODI captain.