Indian Cricket Team History

Cricket is like a religion in India and each generation saw players who, with their talent and diligence, helped India become a giant in cricketing world it is right now. Cricket has a huge fanbase in India and it's visible in almost every match India plays. There are prayers held for the team, people do all they can to support their much loved team. This is one side of the coin.

Same players are also suffer the rage of fans when the team loses. Their effigies are burnt, stones are pelted at their houses etc. This is the other side of the coin. We can easily the craziness level is so damn high. 

And here I will be talking about when and how it started in India, one sport which unites the country. 

Cricket was invented by Britishers way back in late 16th century. But it became national sport of England in 18th century. The first official test match was played between Australia and England in 1877. 

Although a few Indian played for the English cricket team in 1920s, India played its first official test match in 1932, well before Indian Independence. C.K. Nayudu led the team and it was a three day test match. India lost the match but it burgeoned a start of something big. 

India played its first match after Independence in 1948 against Australia in Brisbane. Led by Lala Amarnath, his side were up against Sir Don Bradman and co. It was a 5 match series which India lost 4-0.

India won its first ever test in 1952 against England in Madras and its first series against Pakistan later in the same year. 2 years later in 1954, India drew a 5 match series against Pakistan, 0-0. 

Polly Umrigar and Vijay Manjrekar were the top batsmen in the series and Subhas Gupte with his 21 wickets was the prime bowler. 

The next series against New Zealand saw India winning it comprehensively. India won the 5 match test series 2-0.  Once again Subhash Gupte was the top bowler with 34 wickets in the series.

After this victory India lost a flurry of test matches, losing series against Australia(2-0), West Indies(3-0), England(5-0) and again Australia(2-1). 

It was in 1960s when Indian team regained some momentum after their series win against England and developed a strong home record after winning the series against New Zealand and drawing the series against Australia, Pakistan and England.

India won its first ever series outside the subcontinent in 1967-68 against New Zealand.

It was in 1970-71, when one of the greatest test batsman of all time made his debut, Sunil Gavaskar. 

India were playing against West Indies and with the help of Gavaskar's 774 runs, India won for the first time against West Indies, winning the series 1-0.

Sunil Gavaskar along with players like Bishan Singh Bedi, Erapalli Prasanna, Srinivas Venkataraghavan and Bhagwat Chandrashekhar formed one of the strongest Indian team at that time. The win over West Indies was followed by home and away wins over England in 1971-72.

Sunil Gavaskar was at his prime during the 1970s and 80s. He became the first batsman to cross 10,000 runs in test cricket and was the leading run scorer in tests. His 34 centuries in Test Cricket was a record for almost two decades. He was also the first batsman to score centuries in both the innings of a test match, thrice. 

More to come on Indian cricket team in the next article.

Source : Wikipedia

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