From CK Nayudu to Jasprit Bumrah: Full list of India Test captains

Fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah will become India’s 36th Test captain when he walks out for the toss in the rescheduled fifth Test against England in Birmingham on Friday (July 1).

Bumrah, 28, was named as the stand-in skipper by the Chetan Sharma-led BCCI selection committee after regular captain Rohit Sharma was ruled out of the game after testing positive for COVID-19.

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In January, Bumrah, for the first time, was appointed as the Indian Test team’s vice-captain during the tour to South Africa. In December 2021, he was appointed as the ODI vice-captain.

Bumrah, who made his Test debut in 2018, has so far played 29 Tests and taken 123 wickets.

‘God has a plan’

About captaining India one day, Bumrah had said in February, “Yes, if given an opportunity at any scenario, it would be an honour and I would never ever shy away from that, but it is something that I don’t go looking for.”

“I don’t like to chase things because I don’t want to… See I am a person who believes that God has a plan and everything will find out its own way, so I don’t like to hamper the plan that is there. I try to never change anything. Whatever role is asked of me I would do it with the best ability that I can. I don’t want to change the whole organisation, you are always a leader when you are a senior member of the team so it’s just a post that comes with you,” he added.

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Further, he had said, “Basically, you try to help all the people in whatever capacity you can. Even in Mumbai Indians, you have got a lot of senor players but now I am one of the senior players as well so you help the captain, you help everyone, you play the leadership role even when you are not asked to. That’s how I look at it. I never want to, you know, just for personal satisfaction have that okay I want to be in this I have to be the captain. It’s just a post, it’s just a name, you have to do your job and you have to help people in the best way you can.”

35-year wait ends

It is a rarity in world cricket to hand over the captaincy reins to a fast bowler. For India, it will be after 35 years that the country will have a paceman at the helm. The last fast bowler to lead India in the longest format was Kapil Dev.

All-rounder Kapil, who led India to the 1983 World Cup win, had captained the country from 1983 to 1987 in 34 Tests, winning four and losing seven. There were 22 drawn games under his leadership and one contest ended in a tie.

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India played its first-ever Test match in June 1932, against England at Lord’s. Colonel Cottari Kanakaiya Nayudu (CK Nayudu) was India’s first Test captain.

Virat Kohli holds the record for leading India in most number of Tests – 68. The next on the list is MS Dhoni with 60 games followed by Sourav Ganguly (49 Tests). Kohli is the most successful Indian Test captain with 40 wins. Earlier this year, Rohit replaced Kohli as Test skipper.

Full list of India’s Test captains

1. Colonel CK Nayudu
2. Maharajah of Vizianagram
3. Nawab of Pataudi
4. Lala Amarnath
5. Vijay Hazare
6. Vinoo Mankad
7. Ghulam Ahmed
8. Polly Umrigar
9. Hemu Adhikari
10. Dattajirao Krishnarao Gaekwad
11. Pankaj Roy
12. Gulabrai Ramchand
13. Nari Contractor
14. Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi
15. Chandu Borde
16. Ajit Wadekar
17. Srinivas Venkataraghavan
18. Sunil Gavaskar
19. Bishan Singh Bedi
20. GR Viswanath
21. Kapil Dev
22. Dilip Vengsarkar
23. Ravi Shastri
24. Kris Srikkanth
25. Mohammad Azharuddin
26. Sachin Tendulkar
27. Sourav Ganguly
28. Rahul Dravid
29. Virender Sehwag
30. Anil Kumble
31. MS Dhoni
32. Virat Kohli
33. Ajinkya Rahane
34. KL Rahul
35. Rohit Sharma
36. Jasprit Bumrah