History of the Indian cricket team

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Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The Indian cricket team made its

Twenty20 World Cup in 2007[3] and ICC Champions Trophy in 2002 and 2013.[4]

Cricket was introduced to the Indian subcontinent by European merchant sailors in the 18th century, and the first cricket club was established in 1792. India's national cricket team did not play its first Test match until 25 June 1932 at Lord's, becoming the sixth team to be granted Test cricket status. From 1932 India had to wait until 1952, almost 20 years for its first Test victory. In its first fifty years of international cricket, India was one of the weaker teams, winning only 35 of the first 196 Test matches it played. The team, however, gained strength in the 1970s with the emergence of players such as Gavaskar, Viswanath, Kapil Dev, and the Indian spin quartet.

India won its first

Ganguly, Dravid,Laxman and Kumble
, considered to be among the greatest Indian players.

T20I
teams.

History

Lala Amarnath batting during a match against Middlesex at Lord's, c. 1936

Test status (1932–1970)

See also: History of cricket in India to 1918, List of India Test cricketers, and List of India ODI cricketers

A few Indians played as members of the

KS Duleepsinhji
, before we start with all of the history of Indian Cricket its very important to know about the person behind this great history of Indian Cricket. Maharaja Of Patiala Sir Bhupinder Singh or Bhuppa best known for his extravagance and for being a cricketer. His cricket teams – Patiala XI is among the best of India. He was a great patron of sports. Maharaja of patiala is the man behind the golden history of Indian Cricket. He sponsored various tours of India for cricket and various tournaments using his own money. He was captain of the Indian cricket team that visited England in 1911, and played in 27 first-class cricket matches between 1915 and 1937. For the season of 1926/27, he played as a member of Marylebone Cricket Club. He donated the Ranji Trophy in honour of Kumar Shri Ranjitsinhji, Jam Sahib of Nawanagar. He was selected as the captain of India on its first Test tour of England in 1932, but dropped out for reasons of health two weeks before departure and the Maharaja of Porbandar took over. All this way India becoming the sixth team to be granted test cricket status. India made its debut as a Test-cricket-playing-nation in England in 1932 led by
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

Sir Don Bradman while India was led by Lala Amarnath
. The Australians returned home, winning the 5 Test series with the score 4–0.

Queen Elizabeth II with members of the Indian team during the Indian tour of England in 1952
.

India's first ever Test victory came against England at

West Indies
(3-0),

The team's performances again began to improve in the 1960s, starting with their first series win over England in 1961–62. During this time, India's strong record at home started to develop, in which the team won a series against New Zealand in 1965-66 and drew series against Pakistan, Australia and England. In 1967–68, India won their first series outside the

subcontinent
against New Zealand.

One-day cricket and World Cup success (1970–1985)

Bhagwat Chandrasekhar
, Gavaskar formed the nucleus of arguably India's strongest Test team up to that point in time. India's win over the West Indies was followed by home and away wins over England in 1971 and 1972–73.

During the 1980s, other players like

West Indies in an exciting final.[11]

Late 20th century (1985–2000)

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. 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. The emergence of Sachin Tendulkar and

match-fixing
scandal. Under his captaincy, the Indian team became virtually unbeatable at home, with big wins against teams such as England, Sri Lanka, South Africa and Australia. Their performances abroad, however, left a lot to be desired.

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, Sourav Ganguly took over as captain, and the New Zealander John Wright became coach.

Turn of the millennium (2000–2007)

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.

Sachin Tendulkar celebrates upon reaching his 38th Test century against Australia at the SCG in 2008.
  • SuperTest" against Australia.[12]

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. While Tendulkar, Sehwag and Dravid formed the mainstay of the Indian batting, the coming of age of players like Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif led to the emergence of younger stars like Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni.

India's traditional strengths have always been its line-up of

Sreesanth and many more playing in the national team. India, however have always struggled in the pace department with the only prominent pace bowler ever coming was Zaheer Khan
.

India has had a very good record against Australia and, before the 2004/05 tour, never being defeated by Australia in a Test Series in India since 1969. This was the reason for

Australian captain Steve Waugh labelling India as the "Final Frontier".[14] The famous 2001 Australian tour of India saw Harbhajan Singh become the first Indian to take a Test hat-trick and started a good run for the team, as India beat Australia 2–1. India also came runners up to Australia in the final of the 2003 Cricket World Cup
.

Since 2004, India had not been doing as well in One-day Internationals. The players who took India to great heights over the past ten years such as Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Anil Kumble grew older and did not maintain their form and fitness. Following the series loss to Australia, India collapsed on the final day in the Third Test in

2005 Indian Oil Cup
and a similarly depleted Zimbabwean team only to be defeated twice in the finals by New Zealand, continuing a poor ODI finals record.

The tension resulted in a fallout between Chappell and Ganguly lead to a confidential email sent by Chappell to the BCCI being leaked, in which he condemned the leadership and performance of Ganguly. After a series of high-profile board meetings and public jousting including some players,

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Gautam Gambhir and Irfan Pathan. The team also beat the Sri Lankans in the Test series 2–0 to displace England from its position in second place in the ICC Test rankings, but India slipped back by losing the high-profile[15] series to Pakistan. Indian team continued its good form in ODIs, beating Pakistan 4–1 in Pakistan. India achieved the world-record of winning 17 successive matches chasing the total. India convincingly won England's tour of India winning the series 5–1. After leveling the DLF Cup series 1–1 in Abu Dhabi, India travelled to West Indies where they lost the ODI series 1–4 to a weak West Indies team which was ranked 8th in the ICC ODI Ranking. The series loss again questioned the Indian team's ability to play away from the Sub-continent and the chances of the Indian team to win the 2007 Cricket World Cup.[16]

Dravid's captaincy was cut short in the ill-fated 2007 World Cup, where India were out of the league stage following an embarrassing loss to Bangladesh. This was followed by Mahendra Singh Dhoni taking over the reins.

Under Dhoni, Kohli and Rohit (2007–present), Dhoni (2007-2017), Kohli (2014-2022), Rohit (2021-Present).

Indian players celebrating a wicket during their series against New Zealand in 2010.

Under MS Dhoni, India won the inaugural T20 World cup.[17] It also began an era of India's dominance in world cricket in both tests and ODIs, culminating in a victory in the 2011 Cricket World Cup and a 4–0 whitewash of Australia in a home test series.[18] It also saw Indian batsmen scoring the only 200s ever, first Sachin Tendulkar then Virender Sehwag and then Rohit Sharma on three occasions.[19]

Dhoni has been widely acknowledged as the most successful Indian captain ever.[20] However, following a drubbing in a test series down under in late 2014, he retired from tests.[21]

Virat Kohli with coach Duncan Fletcher, c. 2015.

In the 2015 World Cup, India reached the semi-finals.[22]

In June 2017,

Windies where the team won the ODI series by 3–1 but lost the T20I series. By defeating Sri Lanka by 9–0 in all three formats, India became the first team to cleansweep Sri Lanka in ODI series in their home soil.[24]

In January 2018, Virat Kohli led Indian team toured South Africa where they lost the Test series by 1–2.[25] But the Team showed some extravagant skills and defeated the mighty South African team and clinched the ODI series by 5–1[26] and T20I series by 2–1.[27] By the series win, India became the second Asian country to defeat South Africa in ODI and T20I series on their home soil after Pakistan.

In the 2019 World Cup, India were defeated in the semi-finals by New Zealand.[28]

A new era began when the captaincy was passed from Virat Kohli to Rohit Sharma and coaching shifted from Ravi Shastri to Rahul Dravid. Rohit has won various trophies as a captain when Virat was rested as The Asia Cup, Nidahas Trophy and won series against Sri Lanka, New Zealand. Under Rahul Dravid's coaching men in blue whitewashed New Zealand when it was led by Rohit Sharma with 3–0 with Rohit himself scoring 48, 55, 56 in 3 matches being the highest scorer in the series.

International tournaments

See also: India at the Cricket World Cup

Since advancing to full Test Status and the creation of more and more international cricket tournaments, India has slowly become involved in a number of Cricketing tournament's including the Cricket World Cup, ICC Champions Trophy and Asia Cup. India's first two Cricket World Cups were largely failures, and the team failed[29] to progress beyond the first round. But India upset the West Indies in the final of the 1983 Cricket World Cup to claim the Prudential Cricket World Cup for the first time, captained by Kapil Dev. India and the West Indies had cruised through the preliminary rounds in Group B, while England and Pakistan emerged the victors from Group A. Most considered India to be the underdogs in the group stages, and their win against West Indies was categorized as similar to Zimbabwe's win over Australia in the same World Cup. They were, in fact, quoted as having odds of 66 to 1 before the beginning of the tournament.

The Indian cricket team in action in the Wankhede Stadium

India's performance in the remaining world cups has been considerably consistent. In the 1987 Cricket World Cup, the team advanced to the semi-finals as favourites, they did the same in 1996, both times they suffered upset defeats in the semi-finals. India was less strong in the 1999 Cricket World Cup, and did not make it past the Super Six section. However they impressed all in the 2003 Cup, only losing two games (both against reigning champions Australia) and advancing to the finals before taking a loss.

In the year after their World Cup victory, (1984) India continued its new-found dominance over One Day Cricket with a comprehensive win over arch-rivals

Sri Lanka
in the finals. It won its third consecutive Asia Cup with a victory over Sri Lanka in 1990. It continued its strong streak in 1995, again beating Sri Lanka in the final. However, in 1997, a confident Sri Lanka riding on their first-ever World Cup victory swept past a weaker Indian side, breaking the 4-tournament winning streak.

References

  1. ^ ICC website: 2005 Archived 2 November 2008 at the Wayback Machine 2006 Archived 17 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine 2007 Archived 9 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine 2008 Archived 5 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ISSN 0971-751X
    . Retrieved 22 October 2021.
  3. ^ Prasad, Dhruva (18 October 2021). "T20 World Cup 2007: India's moment of reckoning". Sportstar. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
  4. ISSN 0971-751X
    . Retrieved 22 October 2021.
  5. ISSN 0971-751X
    . Retrieved 22 October 2021.
  6. ^ "Sachin Tendulkar is greatest cricketer in history - Brian Lara". BBC Sport. 12 November 2013. Retrieved 13 February 2020.
  7. ^ Sheringham, Sam (2 April 2011). "India power to World Cup triumph". BBC. Retrieved 13 February 2020.
  8. ^ "India's team mentor Dhoni joins squad for T20 World Cup campaign". The Indian Express. 18 October 2021. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
  9. ISSN 0971-751X
    . Retrieved 22 October 2021.
  10. ISSN 0971-751X
    . Retrieved 23 October 2021.
  11. ISSN 0971-751X
    . Retrieved 23 October 2021.
  12. ^ "Full Scorecard of Australia vs ICC World XI Only Test 2005/06 - Score Report". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 23 October 2021.
  13. ^ "India - Test Career Bowling - Most Wickets". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 26 October 2006.
  14. ^ Waugh, Steve. "Steve Waugh Column". www.cricinfo.com/. Retrieved 21 September 2006.
  15. ^ "TWI gets production rights for India-Pakistan series". www.hinduonnet.com/. The Hindu - Sport. Archived from the original on 26 November 2007. Retrieved 14 October 2006.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  16. ^ "India can find right balance before World Cup - Gavaskar". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 6 October 2021.
  17. ISSN 0971-751X
    . Retrieved 23 October 2021.
  18. ^ "Full Scorecard of Sri Lanka vs India Final 2010/11 - Score Report". ESPNcricinfo.
  19. ^ "Records. One-Day Internationals. Batting records. Most runs in an innings". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 23 October 2021.
  20. ISSN 0971-751X
    . Retrieved 23 October 2021.
  21. ISSN 0971-751X
    . Retrieved 23 October 2021.
  22. ^ "Full Scorecard of Australia vs India 2nd Semi-Final 2014/15 - Score Report". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
  23. ISSN 0971-751X
    . Retrieved 23 October 2021.
  24. ^ PTI. "Rahane: India's aim 'to remain No. 1 in Tests'". Sportstar. Retrieved 23 October 2021.
  25. ISSN 0971-751X
    . Retrieved 23 October 2021.
  26. ^ "India vs South Africa ODI series report card: Virat Kohli, wrist-spinners pass with flying colours; AB de Villiers flunks". Firstpost. 18 February 2018. Retrieved 23 October 2021.
  27. ^ "India vs South Africa 3rd T20I: India beat South Africa by seven runs to win series 2-1. Cricket News - Times of India". The Times of India. 25 February 2018. Retrieved 23 October 2021.
  28. ISSN 0971-751X
    . Retrieved 22 October 2021.
  29. ^ "Smriti Mandhana Says Indian Cricket Needs Six-Team Women's IPL - Betting Raja". 19 August 2021. Retrieved 18 December 2021.
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