Stats: Virat Kohli could break Sourav Ganguly's record after the Sri Lanka series
Indian captain Virat Kohli is on the cusp of surpassing former captain Sourav Ganguly in the number of Test wins.
Ganguly, who is considered by many as the man who grabbed Indian cricket by its horns and shook it out its of slumber and moulded the new model, has won 21 Tests in 49 appearances as the Indian captain.
Virat Kohli, who is still new to this job, has already led his side to 19 victories in 29 matches. These numbers are stunning, but the naysayers would be quick to pounce on the fact that one should not read too much into these stats as a majority of these victories have come in India.
Also, when the Indian team has travelled overseas, they have faced West Indies and Sri Lanka, two teams who are in a state of transition and hence the competition they offered was way too feeble to ruffle the feathers of the buoyant Indian side.
Having said this, Kohli has managed to build a confident team, a group of players who have the ability to win matches all on their own, and thus the biggest challenge for this group would be when they hop across the sub-continent and travel to South Africa, England, Australia, and New Zealand.
Success in the away assignments will ascertain the success of this Indian team. It could also make Kohli the most successful Indian captain as he would most definitely breach the record set by MS Dhoni, who currently leads the captain's pack by winning 27 Test matches in 60 appearances.
However, despite all the appreciation which Dhoni so rightly deserves, the biggest scourge in his career has to be India's inability to win overseas series. The 2011 drubbing at the hands of England and Australia has to be the lowest point in Dhoni's captaincy tenure.
As India awaits the challenge of Sri Lanka in the upcoming series, the scales are tilted heavily in favour of the hosts owing to their dominant record in the recent past and also because of the annihilation they dished out to Sri Lanka just a couple of months ago in their own backyard.
However, Sri Lanka managed to bounce back in some aplomb as they upstaged Pakistan in Abu Dhabi and this suddenly has given Dinesh Chandimal's side a quiet sense of belief that they have the ability to pose a sterner challenge to this Indian side.