India & 500 Tests: a Perspective                                 

In the euphoria of recent successes, Indian cricket seems to have forgotten those who laid the solid edifice of its massive modern structure. India began its tryst with official Test matches way back in 1932 on a cold, windy morning at Lord’s in the Marylebone district of London. The captain of the Indian team, Maharaja of Porbandar 

Natwarsinhji, in a magnanimous gesture handed over the captaincy for the inaugural Test match to the more deserving ‘commoner’ and an outstanding leader of men, C K Nayudu.

The fallacy of the much-heralded issue that the Hindus do not get along with the Muslims was exposed in next to no time as Mohammed Nissar, India’s fastest-ever fast bowler, bombarded the formidable England batting arsenal in his opening spell. The pride of the colonial masters lay in tatters at 19 for 3. Nayudu’s faith in Nissar did not go unrewarded as Nissar responded with 5 prized scalps.

That early morning spell of Nissar and Amar Singh sent a significant signal to the cricketing world that a great cricketing nation was on the horizon. Those magnificent Indian cricketers of the first two decades, 1930s and 1940s, could not form a match-winning combination as only three official Test series, all against England in England, were played before India’s independence.

With the advent of partition of the Indian sub-continent, we lost some of our stalwarts who stayed back in their homes which fell across the border. This was a mighty blow to the emergence of India as a power in the international cricketing firmament. If the land mass was not partitioned in 1947, one can well imagine the strength of the ‘undivided’ team. This political decision set back sports in the sub-continent by several decades.

Men of the calibre of Vijay Merchant, Mushtaq Ali, Lala Amarnath, Vijay Hazare and Vinoo Mankad, among others, were relegated to the footnotes of Indian cricket history. Ironically, here in India our cricketing grandfathers have never received their due recognition and reward. Men who had laid India’s strong cricketing foundation since the days of Mehallasha Pavri, Baloo Palvankar and Dinkar Balwant Deodhar came from all communities, all backgrounds and all provinces. No particular group or region can ever take the credit for the stupendous superstructure of contemporary Indian cricket.

India’s first-ever Test victory came at Chepauk in 1952. Nigel Howard’s England (then MCC) tasted an innings defeat as the world-class all-rounder Vinoo Mankad’s left-arm orthodox spin flummoxed the English professionals. Mankad’s haul of 12 wickets in the historic effort was helped by centuries from Polly Umrigar and Pankaj Roy. Jovial wicket-keeper Prabir Sen, born in Comilla (now in Bangladesh) conspired with Mankad to bring about five ‘stumpings’.

Kanpur in 1959 proved to be the Waterloo of Richie Benaud’s star-studded Australians. Under the leadership of Gulabrai Ramchand, India enacted a historic victory at Green Park as off-spinner Jasu Patel wreaked havoc, with 9 and 5 wickets in the match, after India had conceded the first innings lead.

In 1961-62 India defeated England for the first time in a series. Nariman Contractor’s men had Ted Dexter’s outfit in total disarray at Calcutta and Madras. Motganhalli Laxminarsu Jaisimha, Vijay Manjrekar, Chandu Borde and Salim Durrani were the outstanding performers in the series.

Since 1932, India went on to win 131 Tests out of the 502 played till today. Of these 131 victories, India’s performance at home, as with all other nations, is far superior to its performance abroad. So far India has won just 41 Tests abroad while winning no less than 90 Tests under familiar conditions at home.

Sadly India’s statistics of series victories abroad have not done justice to the potential of our cricketers. Series victories on foreign soil have been far and few. Just eleven series victories abroad in about 84 years of international cricket is a poor index of the worth of India’s cricketing talents. This scenario needs to be rectified soon.

Unfortunately India had to wait till 1967-68 for her first Test and series victory on foreign soil. Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi led from the front winning 3-1 against New Zealand. The Kiwis had little answer to the wiles of Bishan Bedi, Erapalli Prasanna and Bapu Nadkarni, while the batting honours went to Ajit Wadekar, gutsy Rusi Surti and the ever-reliable Chandu Borde.

The wait for 35 years to win a Test abroad is a sad echo on the undoubted abilities of our cricketers. The excellent Indian players excelled individually but failed miserably to combine as a unit. Too many groups, too many diversions, too much of bias had set in. Into that claustrophobic environment, the appearance of Tiger Pataudi, bred in England, brought about a refreshing change. Communalism and provincialism took a back seat. Young, deserving players began to feel comfortable. The cricketing ambience in the country looked bright and relaxed.

The year 1971 will always be earmarked as the turning point of Indian cricket. Indian cricket finally came into full maturity with magnificent victories over Garfield Sobers’ West Indies in the Caribbean and over England in her own backyard. Never before or after has India defeated two major powers of cricket abroad in the same year. At the time there was no system of ranking of Test teams. But India was certainly numero uno because England had just defeated both Australia and West Indies.

The great victory at Port of Spain in Trinidad against West Indies was possible because of the dexterity of an Afghanistan-born Indian cricketer, Salim Aziz Durani. The Kabuliwala was a cricketing genius who cared neither for fame or fortune. In two successive deliveries he had Clive Lloyd and Sobers on bended knees. The much-vaunted West Indians reeled under the gaze of the soft smile of the handsome artist. He did not jump to celebrate. There was no awkward gesture. Not a single curse escaped his lips. It appeared he was in empathy with the vanquished batters. This was cricket at its best: modesty in victory. He exemplified the spirit of cricket: the sport of gentlemen.

In this series we saw the rise and rise of a short-statured, broad shouldered persona named Sunil Gavaskar. Along with Dilip Sardesai, his senior Mumbai mate, he went on and on to rewrite cricketing records galore. With Gavaskar’s personality and performance on and off the field Indian cricket could no longer be taken casually.

Skipper Ajit Wadekar repeated his Caribbean victory by bearding the British lion in its own den at the Oval with Bhagawat Chandrasekhar striking venom with his vicious variety. India was actually on top of the cricketing world.

Despite the usual wins, drawn matches and defeats in the following seasons, another milestone in Indian cricket was the wins at Calcutta and Chennai against Lloyd’s team in 1974-75. Two Tests down, Pataudi’s inspiring leadership, Gundappa Viswanath’s magnificent batsmanship and Chandrasekhar’s magical spin helped India to level the series before going down in the final encounter. Both teams matched each other eyeball to eyeball. No quarters asked for; none expected in return.

In 1976 at Port of Spain India created a milestone in cricketing history. Under Bishan Singh Bedi, India chased a total over 400 runs and won a magnificent victory. Gavaskar, Viswanath and Mohinder Amarnath shone with the willow as Bedi, Srinivas Venkataraghavan and Chandrasekhar took the bowling honours.

Then again in 1981 came another superb victory at Melbourne under Gavaskar. The match was heading for a certain defeat when Kapil Dev, Karsan Ghavri and Dilip Doshi turned the apple-cart on the final day and helped India to draw the series.

In 1986 skipper Kapil Dev led India to a glorious series victory in England with convincing victories at Lord’s and Leeds. Dilip Vengsarkar was outstanding with unbeaten centuries in either Test, while Roger Binny, Chetan Sharma and Maninder Sigh among the wickets. Kapil Dev proved to one and all that his leadership qualities were no less inspiring than anybody else’s.

India next series win over Sri Lanka in 1993-94 did not cut much ice as Sri Lanka was still regarded to be among the minnows as were the ‘away’ wins over Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.

But a unique occasion was the magnificent victory over Steve Waugh’s Australians at Eden Gardens in 2000-01. Despite following-on, Rahul Dravid (180) and VVS Laxman (281) took up the challenge and posted a lead to aid Harbhajan Singh to run through the Aussie innings with a hat-trick. Skipper Saurav Ganguly led from the front as the next Test was also won and consequently the series. In the annals of Test cricket, the Eden Gardens win was just the third occasion of a team winning after following on. This was surely among the greatest victories recorded in Indian cricket.

The next series win ‘away from home’ was against Pakistan in 2003-04. Deputy captain Rahul Dravid drew the first blood at Multan as the tour captain Ganguly completed the operation at Rawalpindi giving India her first taste of a series victory on Pakistani soil.

Rahul Dravid, genteel and gracious, never got the credit for doing a yeoman job as India’s captain. He was the captain when India won a series victory against Brian Lara’s West Indies in 2005-06 and then later overwhelmed Michael Vaughan’s England in 2007. He himself was outstanding with the bat as well as in handling his peers. Unfortunately, the gentleman that he is, he has forever remained in the background because of his impeccable conduct and low profile. He is the only Indian captain to have helped the nation to win three Test series abroad. Other Indian skippers have done extremely well at home, no doubt, but Dravid was exemplary in leadership under difficult and non-familiar conditions ‘away from home’.

Virat Kohli and his mates deserve our kudos for India’s recent ‘away’ series victory in the Caribbean as well as the current series at ‘home’ against the weak Kiwis. Now it is up to these talented modern-day stars to rectify India’s poor record of series victories abroad. They have given us a taste of it and every indication that Indian cricket is about to set sail in full steam in the years ahead.

With Anil Kumble as the guiding spirit, hopefully the emphasis on team ahead of self will come to the forefront. The two Ks of Indian cricket – Kumble and Kohli – will surely help India to be the King of world cricket.