Pre-independence :
A few Indians played as members of the
English cricket team while India was under
British rule, including
Ranjitsinhji and
KS Duleepsinhji, but India made its debut as a Test-cricket-playing-nation in England in 1932 led by
CK Nayudu, well before
Indian independence. The team performed well, with
Mohammad Nassir
taking 5-93 and 1-42 in the match against England. The match was given
test status despite being only 3 days in length. England, batting first,
scored 259 with Nissar cleaning up the openers and tailenders. However
the Indian team failed to capitalize on their bowling performance, all
out for 189 with
CK Nayudu
the top scorer with 40 runs. England went on to score 275 and set India
a target of 346, which always seemed out of the visitor's grasp. India
were all out for 187 and lost by 158 runs.
The team's first series as an independent country was in 1948 against
Australia at
Brisbane. Australia were led by
Sir Don Bradman while India was led by
Lala Amarnath. Australia cruised home, winning the 5 Test series 4-0.
Post Independence :
India's first ever Test victory came against England at
Madras in 1952. India's first series victory was against
Pakistan later the same year. In 1954, India drew a 5-Test series with Pakistan 0-0, the batting strength from India had come from
Polly Umrigar and
Vijay Manjrekar while the prime bowler was
Subhash Gupte with 21 wickets in the series. India's first series against
New Zealand in 1956 created a comprehensive series victory for India, winning the 5-Test series 2-0.
MH Mankad
was excellent in his batting, averaging 105.2 in the series while
scoring 526 runs. Once again, S.M. Gupte held India's bowling together,
with 34 wickets. The remainder of the 1950s did not show as good results
as the start: India lost a 3-Test series to Australia (2-0), lost a
5-Test series against the
West Indies (3-0), took a 5-0 thrashing at the hands of England, and lost a second series against a strong Australian side (2-1).
During the 1980s, other players like
Mohammed Azharuddin,
Ravi Shastri,
Laxman Sivaramakrishnan,
Sanjay Manjrekar,
Krish Srikkanth and
Maninder Singh emerged. India won the
Cricket World Cup in 1983, defeating
West Indies
in an exciting final. In 1985, India won the World Championship of
Cricket in Australia. The Test series victory in 1986 in England
remained, for nearly 19 years, the last Test series win outside
subcontinent. Than came the emergence of
Mohinder Amarnath and "Mr. Dependable"
Dilip Vengsarkar
who was the undisputed No. 1 batsman in 1986-87. Sunil Gavaskar became
the first batsman to accumulate 10,000 runs in Test cricket, and went on
to register a record 34 centuries, surpassed only recently by
Sachin Tendulkar.
Kapil Dev, a genuine all-rounder, became the highest wicket taker in Test cricket, surpassing
Richard Hadlee to take a total of 434 wickets, a record which has since been broken by
Courtney Walsh,
Shane Warne and
Muttiah Muralitharan and has also been surpassed by fellow Indian
Anil Kumble.
Sachin Tendulkar, India's leading run-scorer in Test and ODI cricket.
The emergence of Sachin Tendulkar and
Anil Kumble
in 1989 and 1990 was to herald an era of Indian cricket that was
dominated by stars and individual brilliance. Sachin Tendulkar became
arguably the best batsman in the world, along with
Brian Lara of the
West Indies and in 1998, Sir Donald Bradman himself remarked that Tendulkar batting style was similar to his.
Mohammed Azharuddin,
who captained India for most of the 1990s, proved a captain whose main
strength, if not his motivational skills, was an ability to stay cool
under pressure. Azharuddin's artistic batting however declined during
the later years of his captaincy, and his best innings during this time
were mostly when playing at home. The
Hyderabadi stylist's career ended after 99 Tests when he was banned for life after being implicated in the
match-fixing
scandal. Under his captaincy, the Indian team became virtually
unbeatable at home, with big wins coming against teams like England, New
Zealand and Australia, but their performances abroad left a lot to be
desired. Also, there was a tendency for Towards the end of 1999, the
Indian team was in flux. Although they had performed well in the
1999 World Cup,
the winter was marked by a disastrous tour to Australia which exposed
the Indian team's weaknesses when playing abroad, marked with a loss of
form of most of the batsmen, except Tendulkar and the newly-emerged
VVS Laxman.
After Tendulkar quit captaincy and Azharuddin was banned for
match-fixing, Saurav Ganguly took over as captain, and the New Zealander
John Wright became coach.
Ganguly's captaincy heralded a new era in Indian cricket. It began,
perhaps, in the famous series against Australia in 2001, when
Steve Waugh's strong team was defeated 2-1 in a Test series after having taken a 1-0 lead at
Mumbai. The series is best known for a remarkable turnaround by the Indian team in the
Kolkata Test, when VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid and
Harbhajan Singh's performance took India to victory after they had
followed on.
This series marked a turning point in the Indian team's fortunes, and
provided the team with the boost they dearly needed. This was followed
by stellar performances by the team when playing abroad, with Test
victories coming in Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, West Indies, England,
Australia, and a famous series victory against arch-rivals Pakistan in
2004. The series in England in 2002 is billed as Rahul Dravid's series,
as he became the top scorer for the Indians, with centuries coming at
Trent Bridge in
Nottingham,
Headingley in
Leeds and a famous 217 at the
Oval in
London. This was followed by a sensational win in Australia at
Adelaide in 2003, where Dravid, VVS Laxman and
Ajit Agarkar
scripted a come-from-behind victory after the team had conceded 556
runs in the first innings. The series win in Pakistan that followed was
marked by
Virender Sehwag becoming the first Indian to score a triple century in Test cricket. Along with Sehwag, players like
Yuvraj Singh and
Mohammed Kaif
emerged, making the Indian batting order one of the strongest in the
world in both forms of the game*. Their performances helped reduced
India's dependence on their top guns in one-day cricket, and a 7-batsman
policy contributed to India's successes in the limited-overs game,
culminating in their reaching the final of the
2003 Cricket World Cup. In the bowling department, India unearthed a plethora of fast-bowling talent, with
Zaheer Khan,
Ashish Nehra, and later
Irfan Pathan and
L Balaji
leading the pack. The veteran Anil Kumble became the highest
wicket-taker for India after surpassing Kapil Dev, and also passed the
500-mark in March 2006. His bowling performances abroad improved
considerably, and he played a major part in India's overseas
performances in England, Australia and Pakistan. Harbhajan Singh also
provided him great company in the spin department, and at home the two
bowling in tandem became a familiar sight.
In 2005, Indian cricket was again shrouded in controversy. After a
somewhat slow season marked by a dip in team performance following the
famous Pakistan series ended, the coaching job passed from John Wright
to the Australian
Greg Chappell.
Saurav Ganguly, whose batting form had taken a beating in that year,
was involved in a spat with Chappell over whether he should be
continuing as captain to reduce pressure on him. This was followed by
Ganguly being dropped from the team and Rahul Dravid taking over as
captain. Dravid's captaincy, which has now finished a year, has been
successful so far. Although there was a disappointing loss in Pakistan
at Karachi, a series of comfortable one-day victories followed by the
recent Test series win in the West Indies after 35 years have been the
high points of the last season. While Tendulkar, Sehwag and Dravid form
the mainstay of the Indian batting, the coming of age of players like
Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif has also led to the emergence of younger
stars like
Suresh Raina and
MS Dhoni. In the bowling department,
Irfan Pathan has become the spearhead of the pace attack following the inconsistent performances of Zaheer Khan. New fast bowlers like
R. P. Singh,
Munaf Patel and
S Sreesanth
have also emerged. With more away series round the corner, it remains
to be seen whether India under Rahul Dravid, who is now one of the top
players in the world, can maintain their place in the top four of world
cricket.
f memorable events in Indian Cricket that
are cherished by the Indian Cricket enthusiasts. The team first got
importance in the international arena during the 
