Infographic: MS Dhoni equals Ricky Ponting's tally of most international matches as captain

There has been a lot of talk on successful captains in international cricket, let’s have a look the top five captains who have captained on most occasions for their respective teams.

There have been many captains in international cricket but not many get the tag of being ‘great’. Indian captain MS Dhoni is one of them and is considered to be among the greatest captains in international cricket. He took the burden of leading the Indian side back in 2007 and his captaincy started with maiden ICC World T20 in 2007, which India eventually won and then he took the same responsibility in One-Day Internationals (ODI) too. Also Read: MS Dhoni and records galore

From there on, his journey as captain began and under him Indian cricket team won numerous matches and series, irrespective of the format. He received some criticism for his captaincy in Tests but when it comes to leading the side in limited overs format, Dhoni is much better than Tests. Series after series, he kept breaking records and now Dhoni has got himself another record, which is huge by proportions. Dhoni is currently leading the Indian side in Zimbabwe and after captaining the side in third T20I, he has leveled with former Australian captain Ricky Ponting in terms of leading a side in international cricket for most matches.

On Wednesday, Dhoni equaled his tally of captaining the side in international cricket for most matches with Ponting’s record of 324 games across the formats. Ponting retired back in 2013 after debuting in 1995 and led the Australian side in 77 Tests, 229 ODIs and 17 T20Is. While, Dhoni has captained in 60 Tests, 194 ODIs and 70 T20Is. Dhoni retired as the best captain India ever had in Tests in terms of wins, with 27 victories in 60 matches and 18 defeats. Also Read: Twitterati blast MS Dhoni for another failure with bat

Apart from Dhoni and Ponting, there have been few more captains who performed well in this business and they are Graeme Smith, Stephen Fleming, Allan Border, etc. Excluding Dhoni and Ponting, only Fleming is the captain to lead an international side in more than 300 matches. He is considered to be one of the best New Zealand captains though his record does not look that impressive. Smith and Border are two of the most inspirational figures for their respective teams as captains in international cricket. Smith became the captain of South Africa after ICC Cricket World Cup 2003 and always led his side from the front. On the other hand, Border was the one who probably revived Australian team as under him, they won their first World Cup in 1987 and arguably that was the beginning of their domination in the world of international cricket.

Well, there has been a lot of talk on successful captains in international cricket, let’s have a look the top five captains who have captained on most occasions for their respective teams.

(Abhishek Kumar is a cricket devotee currently staffing with Criclife.com. He can be followed on Twitter @abhik2593 and on Facebook at abhicricket.kumar)