Winning the toss is no less than an art – which cricketer was the master of the best trick?

By Samira Vishwas On Dec 18, 2025

How India Finally Won an ODI Toss: Even before the start of India vs South Africa 3rd ODI in Visakhapatnam, a very strange sight was seen. India captain KL Rahul was extremely happy, laughing and waving his hands in the air in joy. Indian cricketers are very happy even in the dug out. What was so special that made you so happy? In fact, it was the joy of winning the first toss in the 21st attempt in ODIs. Before this, the last time it won the toss was in the World Cup semi-final against New Zealand at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on November 15, 2023.

The question is not what effect did losing 20 consecutive toss have on India’s match record in ODIs? The discussion was whether Indian captain Rohit Sharma (12 out of these 20 matches), KL Rahul (5) and Shubman Gill (3) do not know the art of winning the toss? Out of these 20, India won 12 ODIs and one was tied. What do you know about this won toss of Visakhapatnam:

* Former player and now TV expert Murali Karthik had given some special tips related to the toss to Rahul.

* This time the special thing in the list of changes being done to change the luck was that Rahul tossed the coin with his left hand and this trick worked.

* Rahul himself told that team analyst Conor McGregor had also told him some tricks to help him in the toss.

So much strategy and planning just to win the toss? In fact, it had become a bit of a puzzle as to why the Indian captain is not winning the toss in ODIs? Even when Rahul lost the toss for the 20th consecutive time in ODI in Raipur, he tried a special trick before the toss – this time he kissed the coin before toss but it was of no use.

In this period of losing the toss, there was one person who could have helped the Indian captains but he is no more in this world. The name was EM Grace, brother of England’s famous cricketer Dr. WG Grace. Eric Midwinter, in his anthology ‘WG Grace:His Life and Times’, writes that EM Grace once won 38 out of 40 tosses in a season and claimed to be able to spot a coin spinning in the air and call accordingly.

The pressure of not winning the toss had become so great on Team India that while talking to TV presenter Ravi Shastri in Raipur, Rahul said, ‘I have felt the pressure. We have not been winning the toss for a long time. I practiced the toss a lot but none of the tricks are working. The broadcaster had already prepared the record to show at such a stage: According to this, India losing 20 consecutive toss is not the fault of bad luck because the statistics do not support such thinking. If you toss 10,48,576 times, there is only one possibility of losing 20 consecutive tosses. So has this ‘one possibility’ come to Team India’s share? Such bad luck!

Netherlands is second after India in the record of losing 20 consecutive toss in ODI and they lost 11 tosses in ODI between March 2011 and August 2013. Of these, they won only 3 ODIs, including one match abandoned and one tied. The interesting thing is that now Team India has the record of losing the most number of toss consecutively not only in ODIs but also in Tests. Between December 2009 and October 2010, 10 consecutive toss were lost. Overall, India is also the ‘champion’ in all three formats because it lost 15 consecutive toss between January and July 2025. This includes losing the toss in all 5 Tests in England this year.

Another strange thing is that India lost 11 consecutive toss between November 2023 and January 2024 and this includes losing all 7 tosses (2 T20 Internationals + 3 ODIs + 2 Tests) on the South Africa tour. In 1999, the West Indies team had lost 12 consecutive tosses in all formats. If we only look at the captain’s own record, Rohit Sharma was on top and had lost 12 consecutive toss between 19 November 2023 (World Cup Final) to 9 March 2025 (Champions Trophy Final). Brian Lara also lost 12 tosses between 31 October 1998 and 21 May 1999.

Well, in the matter of toss trick, the story of an Indian captain is very interesting. Lala Amarnath once lost the toss in 10 consecutive tests! This includes all 5 tosses of India’s 1947–48 tour of Australia. Before the last Test in Melbourne, a newspaper there published an interesting news in which it was written that after losing the toss in the first four Tests, Lala Amarnath was practicing the toss separately. It was also written in this report that they had brought a ‘lucky’ coin from somewhere. However, this was not to make any difference because as the captain of the host team, it was Bradman who had to toss the coin in the last Test in Melbourne. It is possible that during his toss practice, Lala Amarnath kept holding the coin just like the Don.