14 tosses in a row now: What are the odds of losing 14 consecutive tosses in international cricket

The Indian men's cricket team has now lost 14 tosses in a row. Shubman Gill has now lost all of his tosses as the captain of India. The odds of losing 14 tosses in a row are 1/16384

Ben Stokes and Shubman Gill before the toss. Image | ECB on X

During the England vs India, 4th test, in Manchester on Wednesday, the Indian cricket team created an unwanted record which might shock any number-buff cricket fan. The Indian men's cricket team has now lost 14 consecutive tosses.

Indian men's test cricket team captain Shubman Gill has now lost all four tosses of his test career as a captain. Gill, however, was not sure about what to do if he had won the toss; he feels comfortable in losing the toss rather than losing the match.

Ben Stokes won the toss for the fourth time in the ongoing Anderson-Tendulkar series and elected to bowl first under the cloudy conditions in Manchester. "Typical Manchester wicket, firm, bit of grass cover," Stokes said after choosing to bowl first.

England made only one change as Liam Dawson came in for injured Bashir, who took the important wicket of Mohammed Siraj in the last test.

In the meantime, for India, there were three changes. Karun Nair was dropped, and Sai Sudharsan was brought back. Akash Deep was injured and was replaced by debutant Anshul Kamboj. On the other hand, Nitish Kumar Reddy, who has been ruled out of the tour now, was superseded by Shardul Thakur.

What are the odds of losing 14 consecutive tosses in international cricket?

A coin toss has two equally likely outcomes: win or lose, each with a probability of 1/2 (0.5).

Assuming each toss is independent, the probability of losing 14 tosses in a row is calculated by multiplying the probability of losing a single toss by itself 14 times:

(1/2)^14 = 1/16384

This means the probability of losing 14 consecutive tosses is 1/16,384, or approximately 0.0061% (0.000061).

So, the Indian men's cricket team has now created such a record which is possible once in 16,384 occasions.

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