The
British brought cricket to India in the early 1700s, with the first cricket
match played in 1721. In 1848, the Parsi community
in Bombay formed the Oriental Cricket Club, the first cricket club to
be established by Indians. After slow beginnings, the Europeans eventually
invited the Parsis to play a match in 1877. By 1912, the Parsis,Sikhs,
Hindus, and Muslims of Bombay played a quadrangular tournament with the
Europeans every year. In the early 1900s, some Indians went on to play for
the English cricket team. Some of these, such as Ranjitsinhji and KS
Duleepsinhji were greatly appreciated by the British and their names went
on to be used for the Ranji Trophy and Duleep Trophy- two major
first class tournaments in India. In 1911, an Indian team went on their first
official tour of England, but only played English county teams and not
the English cricket team. India was invited into The Imperial
Cricket Council in 1926 and made its debut as a
Test-cricket-playing-nation in 1932 led by CK Nayudu.The match was given
Test status despite being only 3 days in length. The team was not strong in its
batting at this point and went on to lose by 158 runs. The Indian team
continued to improve throughout the 1930s and '40s but did not achieve an
international victory during this period. The team's first series as an independent
country was in 1948 against Sir Donald Bradman's Invincibles (a
name given to the Australian cricket team of that time). Australia
won the five-match series, 4–0.
India
recorded their first Test victory against England at Madras (now
Chennai) in 1952. Later in the same year, they won their first Test
series, which was against Pakistan. They continued their improvement
throughout the early 1950s with a series win against New Zealand in
1956. However, they did not win again in the remainder of the decade and lost
badly to strong Australian and English sides. The next decade saw India's
reputation develop as a team with a strong record at home. They won their first
Test series against England at home in 1961–62, and also won a home series
against New Zealand. They also managed to draw home series against
Pakistan and Australia, and another series against England. In this same
period, India also won its first series outside the subcontinent, against New
Zealand in 1967–68.
The
key to India's bowling in the 1970s were the Indian spin
quartet – Bishen Bedi, E.A.S. Prasanna, BS
Chandrasekhar and Srinivas Venkataraghavan. This period also saw the
emergence of two of India's best ever batsmen, Sunil
Gavaskar and Gundappa Viswanath. Indian pitches have had
tendency to supportspin and the spin quartet exploited this to create
collapses in opposing batting line-ups. These players were responsible for the
back-to-back series wins in 1971 in the West Indies and in England, under the
captaincy of Ajit Wadekar. Gavaskar scored 774 runs in the West Indian
series while Dilip Sardesai's 112 played a big part in their one Test win.
The
advent of One-Day International cricket in 1971 created a new dimension in the
cricket world. However, India was not considerably strong in ODIs at
this point and batsmen such as the captain Gavaskar were known for their
defence-based approaches to batting. India began as a weak team in ODIs and did
not manage to qualify for the second round in the first two editions of
the Cricket World Cup. Gavaskar infamously blocked his way to 36 not out
off 174 balls against England in the first World Cup in 1975, India scored just
132 for 3 and lost by 202 runs.
In
contrast, India fielded a strong team in Test matches and were particularly
strong at home where their combination of stylish batsman and beguiling
spinners were seen at their best. India set a then test record in the third
Test against the West Indies at Port-of-Spain in 1976 when they chased 403 to
win thanks to 112 from Vishwanath. This West Indian defeat is considered
to be a watershed in the history of their cricket because it led to
captain Clive Lloyddispensing with spin altogether and relying entirely on
a four man pace attack. In November 1976 the team established another record by
scoring 524 for 9 declared against New Zealand at Kanpur without an individual
scoring a century. There were six fifties, the highest being 70
by Mohinder Amarnath. The innings was the eighth instance in Test cricket
where all eleven batsmen reached double figures.
During
the 1980s, India developed a more attack minded batting line-up with stroke
makers such as the wristy Mohammed Azharuddin, Dilip
Vengsarkar and all-rounder Ravi Shastri prominent during this
time. India won the Cricket World Cup in 1983, defeating the then
favourites West Indies in the final, owing to a strong bowling
performance. In spite of this the team performed poorly in the Test arena,
including 28 consecutive Test matches without a victory. In 1984, India won
the Asia Cup and in 1985, won theWorld Championship of
Cricket in Australia. Apart from this, India remained a very weak team
outside the Indian subcontinent. India's Test series victory in 1986
against England remained the last Test series win by India outside the subcontinent for
the next 19 years. The 1987 Cricket World Cup was held in India. The
1980s saw Gavaskar and Kapil Dev (India's best all rounder to this
date) at the pinnacle of their careers. Gavaskar made a Test record 34
centuries as he became the first man to reach the 10,000 run mark. Kapil Dev
later became the highest wicket taker in Test cricket with 434 wickets. The
period was also marked by an unstable leadership, with Gavaskar and Kapil
exchanging the captaincy several times.
The
addition of Sachin Tendulkar and Anil Kumble to the
national side in 1989 and 1990 further improved the team. The following
year, Javagal Srinath, India's fastest bowler since Amar
Singh made his debut. Despite this, during the 1990s, India did not win
any of its 33 Tests outside the subcontinent while it won 17 out of
its 30 Tests at home. After being eliminated by neighbours Sri
Lanka on home soil at the 1996 Cricket World Cup, the team underwent
a year of change as Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid, later to
become captains of the team, made their debut in the same Test at Lord's.
Tendulkar replaced Azharuddin as captain in late 1996, but after a personal and
team form slump, Tendulkar relinquished the captaincy and Azharuddin was
reinstalled at the beginning of 1998. With the captaincy burden removed,
Tendulkar was the world's leading run-scorer in both Tests and ODIs, as India
enjoyed a home Test series win over Australia, the best ranked team in the
world. After failing to reach the semifinals at the 1999 Cricket World
Cup, Tendulkar was again made captain, and had another poor run, losing 3–0 on
a tour of Australia and then 2–0 at home to South Africa. Tendulkar resigned,
vowing never to captain the team again, with Sourav Ganguly appointed
the new captain. The team was further damaged in 2000 when former captain
Azharuddin and fellow batsmanAjay Jadeja were implicated in a match-fixing
scandal and given life bans.
Since
2000, the Indian team underwent major improvements with the appointment
of John Wright as India's first ever foreign coach. India maintained
their unbeaten home record against Australia in Test series after defeating
them in 2001. The series was famous for the Kolkata Test match, in which India
became only the third team in the history of Test cricket to win a Test match after
following on. Australian captain Steve Waugh labelled India as
the "Final Frontier" as a result of his side's inability to win a
Test series in India. Victory in 2001 against the Australians marked the
beginning of a dream run for India under their captain Sourav Ganguly,
winning Test matches in Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, West
Indies and England. The England series is also known for India's
highest ODI run-chase of 325 runs at Lord's which came in the Natwest
ODI Series final against England. In the same year, India were joint winners of
the ICC Champions Trophy with Sri Lanka, and then went to
the 2003 Cricket World Cup in South Africa where they reached the
final only to be beaten by Australia. The 2003–2004 season also saw India
play out a Test series in Australia where they drew 1–1 with world champions,
and then win a Test and ODI series in Pakistan.
At
the end of the 2004 season, India suffered from lack of form and fitness from
its older players. A defeat in a following home Test series against Australia
was followed by an ODI home series defeat against Pakistan followed by a Test
series levelled 1–1. Greg Chappell took over from John Wright as the
new coach of the Indian cricket team following the series, and his methods
proved to be controversial during the beginning of his tenure. The tension
resulted in a fallout between Chappell and Ganguly, resulting in Rahul
Dravid being made captain. This triggered a revival in the team's
fortunes, following the emergence of players like Mahendra Singh
Dhoni, Suresh Raina, and the coming of age of players like Irfan
Pathan and Yuvraj Singh. A thumping home series victory over Sri
Lanka in 2005 and a drawn series with South Africa put India at 2nd place in
the ICC ODI rankings. This was followed by a convincing ODI series win in
Pakistan in early 2006 following a loss in the Test series, which gave India
the world record of 17 successive ODI victories while batting
second. Towards the middle of 2006 however, a 4–1 series loss in the West
Indies gave rise to a slump in India's ODI form, while they achieved a 1–0
victory in the Test series that followed, giving them their first Test series
victory in the Caribbean since 1971. India's ODI form, however, slumped further
with a disappointing performance in the 2006 Champions Trophy and a drubbing in
the ODI series in South Africa. This was followed yet again by an initial good
performance in the Tests, giving India its first Test match win in South
Africa, although they went on to lose the series 2–1. This Test series was marked
by Ganguly's comeback to the Indian team.
The
beginning of 2007 had seen a revival in the Indian team's ODI fortunes before
the 2007 Cricket World Cup. Series victories against the West Indies and
Sri Lanka, marked by the comeback of Ganguly, and strong form by Tendulkar, and
the emergence of young attacking players like Robin Uthappa saw many
pundits to tip India as a real chance to do well at the 2007 Cricket World
Cup. However, defeats to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka saw India fail to reach the
final eight. India's traditional strengths have always been its line-up
of spin bowlers andbatsmen. Recently, it has a very strong
batting line-up with Rahul Dravid, Sachin
Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag all being selected to play for
the ICC World XI in the 2005 "SuperTest" against Australia.
In previous times, India was unique in that it was the only country to
regularly field three spinners in one team, whereas one is the norm, and of the
fifteen players to have taken more than 100 wickets, only four were pace bowlers
from the last 20 years. However in recent years, Indian pace bowling has
improved, with the emerging talents of Zaheer Khan, Irfan
Pathan, Rudra Pratap Singh,Munaf Patel and Ishant
Sharma many more playing in the national team.
In
December 2006, it played and won its first
ever Twenty20 international in South Africa, becoming the most recent
Test team to play Twenty20 cricket. After winning the Test series against
England in August 2007, Rahul Dravid stepped down as the captain
of the team following which Mahendra Singh Dhoni was made the captain
of the Twenty20 and ODI team. In September 2007, it won the first
ever Twenty20 World Cup held in South Africa,
beating Pakistan by 5 runs in the final. Then they toured Australia
with a controversial series that they lost 2–1 in test but come back for a
whitewash final against them.
After
beating Sri Lanka 2–0 in December 2009, India become the No. 1 team in the
world. then retained by drawing a series to South Africa and Sri Lanka
confirmed their rankings. In October 2010 India won the test series 2–0 against
Australia giving them back to back series win vs them. Then they got the first
drawn series in South Africa. When India slipped to a 4–0 defeat to
England in August 2011, England replaced India as the No. 1 Test team.
On
2 April 2011, India won the 2011 Cricket World Cup, defeating Sri Lanka in
the final, thus becoming the second team after West Indies and Australia to win
it twice, the previous win being in 1983.Gautam Gambhir and the
skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni led the way with classy innings of 97
and 91*, respectively. As Sri Lanka's stalwart batsman Mahela
Jayawardene scored a brilliant 88-ball 103-run century and yet ended up on
the losing side, he also became the first player in World Cup final history to
end up on the losing side despite scoring a century.
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