Longest Toss-Losing Streaks in Cricket History
The longest toss-losing streak in men's international cricket belongs to India, who lost fifteen tosses in a row across three formats and three captains between January and July 2025, a run Guinness World Records recognised and ESPNcricinfo priced at odds of about 0.003 per cent. In one-day internationals alone the Indian run went on to twenty. The longest streak by one Test captain is Nasser Hussain's ten, in 2000 and 2001. This guide sets out the verified records, the odds, and why none of them cost anyone much.
The Records
| Record | Holder | Streak | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| Team, all formats | India | 15 | 31 January to 31 July 2025, under Rohit Sharma (8 ODIs), Shubman Gill (5 Tests) and Suryakumar Yadav (2 T20Is) |
| Team, ODIs | India | 20 | Reached 17 by 23 October 2025 and 20 by 3 December 2025 |
| Previous team ODI record | Netherlands | 11 | 2011 to 2013 |
| ODI captain | Rohit Sharma and Brian Lara | 12 each | Rohit 19 November 2023 to 9 March 2025; Lara 1998 to 1999 |
| Test captain | Nasser Hussain | 10 | From after Lahore in 2000-01 to Mohali in 2001-02 |
| Test captain, South Africa | Graeme Smith | 8 | 2008 to 2009 |
Peter Borren of the Netherlands lost eleven ODI tosses in a row, and Jos Buttler, Monank Patel and Eoin Morgan nine each. Hussain also lost nine in one-day internationals between 2000 and 2002, on top of his ten in Tests. Six consecutive Test toss losses have been suffered by a string of South African captains, from Percy Sherwell to Faf du Plessis.
A number you will see elsewhere and should not: an Alastair Cook streak of thirteen in 2012 and 2013. No record of it exists, and the sequence usually given includes a series in which Cook was not yet captain. Claims of long streaks for Ponting, Williamson, Dhoni and Kohli likewise come without a source, and the quotations attached to them are invented.
The Odds
A fair coin makes every toss a 50 per cent chance, so the odds of losing a run are easy to compute: five in a row is one in 32, ten in a row one in 1,024, fifteen one in 32,768. Over a career of a hundred tosses a captain will see a streak of six or seven at some point, which is why eight to ten is noteworthy and fifteen made the record books. The India run is unusual for crossing formats and captains, which is what turned it from a curiosity into a story.
Did It Cost Them Anything
Not much. India won twelve of the fifteen matches in the record streak, including the Champions Trophy in March 2025, and Hussain's England won series during his. That is consistent with what the larger data shows: across 1,146 IPL matches from 2008 to 2026 the toss winner won 51.6 per cent, a tenth of a point above chance. Our guide to whether the toss matters has the detail. The streak that matters is the one in the scorebook.
The Other Direction
Winning streaks are rarer in the record books because nobody counts them. The longest verified run by a Test captain is Colin Cowdrey's nine consecutive toss wins in 1960 and 1961.
FAQs: Toss-Losing Streaks
Who has lost the most tosses in a row in cricket? India, fifteen in a row across all formats in 2025, and twenty in a row in ODIs by December 2025.
Which captain lost the most Test tosses in a row? Nasser Hussain, ten, between the Lahore Test of 2000-01 and Mohali in 2001-02.
Did Alastair Cook lose thirteen tosses in a row? No. The claim circulates online but no record supports it, and Cook was not captain for part of the period usually cited.
What are the odds of losing ten tosses in a row? One in 1,024 with a fair coin. Fifteen in a row is one in 32,768.
Does losing the toss affect results? Barely. India won twelve of the fifteen matches in their record streak, and toss winners in the IPL win 51.6 per cent of matches.
Sources
India's fifteen-match streak is recorded by Guinness World Records. The ODI streaks and captains' table are from Wisden. Hussain's and Cowdrey's Test records are from Cricket Web, 8 June 2009.
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