With Kane Williamson stepping down as New Zealand white-ball captain, none of Steve Smith, Virat Kohli, Joe Root, and Williamson are full-time skippers of their national sides anymore.
Williamson announced on Wednesday (June 19) that he was giving up the captaincy of the New Zealand ODI and T20I teams following the Black Caps' premature elimination from the 2024 T20 World Cup. His resignation from the leadership post marks the end of an era that saw four stalwarts lead their national sides across formats over the course of the last decade.
"Fab Four" was a term that the late Martin Crowe used to refer to the "four young tyros who have shown themselves to be the leading young bucks in Test cricket" in 2014 - Kohli, Williamson, Smith, and Root. Some of the were already leading their international sides by then, while others joined the group soon enough after that.
Ten years down the line, the captaincy careers of each of them has run its course (except Steve Smith, who fills in as a stop-gap captain on occasion). Who performed the best as captain?
Virat Kohli - 2013-2022
Kohli first led India in a tri-series in the Caribbean in 2013 when MS Dhoni got injured. He captained India in 213 games across formats, winning 135 of those with a win/loss ratio of 2.250. His greatest impact as captain was in Test cricket.
Credited with instilling the fitness culture which gave India a battery of fast bowlers that enabled them to compete in the SENA countries, Kohli led India to 40 wins in 68 Tests. No other player has led India in as many Test matches or to as many victories. In white-ball cricket, India won 65 ODIs out of 95 under Kohli with a win/loss ratio of 2.4, while in T20Is, they won 30 out of 50 games. Kohli led India in four ICC tournaments, reaching the final two times and semis on three occasions: 2017 Champions Trophy, 2019 World Cup, 2021 T20 World Cup, and 2021 WTC. He was unable to break India's long-running drought in ICC tournaments.
Kohli's ouster from captaincy was rather unceremonius. He resigned from the T20I captaincy after the 2021 T20 World Cup, after which he was controversially removed from ODI captaincy as well, the news confirmed via a footnote in a squad announcement. He resigned from Test captaincy soon after, following the South Africa tour in 2021-22.
Steve Smith - 2014-2024
Smith pipped Brad Haddin to be announced captain for Australia's home Test series against India in 2014-15 after Michael Clarke was ruled out of the last three games. He led Australia regularly in Tests and ODIs till 2018, along with a short stint as T20I captain during the 2016 T20 World Cup (the only ICC tournament he led in as full-time captain apart from the 2017 Champions Trophy), before the Sandpaper-gate scandal saw him get banned.
After serving a year-long ban as a player and a longer ban as captain, Smith finally returned to the helm when he led Australia in the Adelaide Test during the 2021 Ashes in the absence of regular skipper Pat Cummins. Since then, he has led Australia in four Tests and seven ODIs as a backup for Cummins.
Smith's overall record as captain across formats is less impressive than Kohli's. From 104 games under his leadership, Australia won 55 with a win/loss ratio of 1.41. In Test matches, that number shoots up to 2.1 as he led Australia to 21 victories in 38 games. In ODIs, he managed to secure 30 victories out of 58, while four out of the eight T20Is he led Australia in resulted in victories.
Joe Root - 2017-2022
Root's England captaincy debut came in 2017 during England's home Test series against South Africa. He is the only one among the four to have not led their national team in limited-overs cricket. Root's five-year long stint as Test captain was not the most fruitful, at least when compared to the standards set by the others in the Fab Four.
England won only 27 of the 64 Tests they played under Root's captaincy, with a win/loss ratio of 1.038, the lowest among this group. However, his longevity in the role was more than any other England captain ever, and the number of victories he managed was also the highest among all those who have led England in Tests.
Kane Williamson - 2012-2024
Williamson was the first among this batch to get a taste of international captaincy. He led New Zealand for the first time in a white-ball tour against the West Indies in 2012. He started his Test captaincy career in 2016.
Kane Williamson has stated that his decision should not be seen as a sign that he was losing interest in international cricket.
— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) June 19, 2024
Read full details here🔽https://t.co/uaR4pVQI0i pic.twitter.com/lUQd0658CS
New Zealand won 107 of the 206 games where Williamson led them across formats, with a win/loss ratio of 1.273. In Tests, that ratio shot up to 2.20, as New Zealand won 22 out of 40 Tests they played under Williamson. His white-ball record was a bit more sedate, with win/loss ratios of 1.15 in ODIs and 1.147 in T20Is.
Williamson's biggest legacy as captain will be taking New Zealand to victory in the inaugural World Test Championship in 2021, after almost doing the same at the 2019 World Cup. In fact, he is the only skipper among the Fab Four to have led their team to an ICC trophy.
Who was the best?
In terms of pure numbers, Kohli's overall win/loss ratio across formats is unmatched, Smith and Williamson were great in Tests with win/loss ratios above two, but their white-ball results weren't as spectacular, while Root's numbers are the worst among the lot.
However, Williamson is the only one among the four with a major trophy under his belt. In fact, if not for a ill-thought out boundary count rule, he could have had two. And that gives him the edge over his contemporaries.
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