T20 World Cup: Virat Kohli's toss record - A look at Indian captain's luck with the coin

Team India on Sunday registered its second defeat in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2021 at the hands of New Zealand by eight wickets at the Dubai International Stadium. Following the defeat against New Zealand, Virat Kohli & Co now stand on the brink of elimination from the tournament.

The Men In Blue now need to win all their matches and at the same time also rely on other results to go their way as well. The Indian team will be up against a spirited Afghanistan team at Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday and a defeat here will shatter all their leftover hopes.

T20 World Cup: Will luck favour Team India in crucial game against Afghanistan?

Apart from dismal batting display, one of the major factors that cost dearly for India is the toss. In the first two matches, luck did not favour skipper Virat Kohli and Team India lost the second toss on a trot. In the ongoing T20 World Cup, toss has been the deciding factor in the majority of the match. Unlike other skippers of Team India, Virat Kohli does not have a sound record when it comes to flipping the coin. In fact, during the series against England in March, Virat Kohli lost 10 out of 12 tosses. 
Afghanistan on the other hand have won all their tosses so far and in fact, they have gone to win two of their last two games. The Mohammad Nabi-led side also had the Pakistan game in the bag before middle-order batter Asif Ali's four straight sixes in the penultimate overtook the match away from them. Virat has again lost the toss against Afghanistan as captain Mohammad Nabi won the toss and elected to field first against India at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium. 

Virat Kohli & Toss factor

Before the New Zealand match, Virat Kohli had acknowledged that toss will be a big factor in the game. "Yeah, it will continue to be a big factor and that is the nature of the tournament. You can look at the situation in two ways, you can bank too much on the toss and you can challenge yourselves as a team that even if you lose the toss, you are good enough to bowl or bat at any situation. Two-three overs can change the course of the game, for us, our only focus is how those eleven individuals are placed mentally," Kohli had said.

Coming back to the ongoing T20 World Cup, Virat Kohli & Team India ended up losing both the toss as well as the contest in the previous two Super 12 outings and now, the batting megastar and the inaugural edition's champions would be hoping for a revival in fortunes with their semi-final qualification hopes hang in the balance. However, things haven't turned out in their favour at the start again as Kohli lost his third toss in a row at the T20 World Cup. 

Now coming to Virat Kohli's stats with the toss, cricket statistician on Twitter outlined that Virat Kohli has won only 18 tosses out of 47 matches making his win toss win percentage in T20 to 38.30 per cent (minimum 30 T20I matches as captain). The only cricketer ahead of Virat Kohli in terms of losing the toss is West Indies' former skipper Carlos Brathwaite. Carlos Brathwaite has won only 11 tosses in 30 matches he captained and has a winning percentage of 38.30 per cent. 

Till August 21, 2021, Virat Kohli played 63 Tests as captain and in those matches, he won 27 times and lost 37 times. While in the 95 ODIs he captained, Kohli won the toss 40 times while lost it 55 times. In comparison with other captains in terms of winning the toss, Virat Kohli sits at the bottom. Till August 2021, Virat Kohli had the lowest win/loss ratio of toss. Out of the 203 matches he captained, Kohli lost the tosses 118 times and won only 85 times making the win/loss ratio to 0.72 per cent. 

(Image: AP)