India National Cricket Team

The Indian cricket team which represents India is an international cricket team and is managed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India which is known to be one of the richest cricket clubs in the world. During the early 1700s the British started cricket in India and in 1721 the first match was played. In 1848 the first cricket Club in Mumbai was formed by the Parsi community which was called as the Oriental Cricket Club and this is the first cricket club formed in India.

In 1721 the first cricket match was played in India which was played by a group of sailors. However it was on 25th June 1932 that the first Test match was played by the Indian cricket team at Lord’s thereby making India cricket team as the sixth Test playing country. The captain of this Indian team was CK Nayadu.

In 1952 the first Test triumph of India cricket team was against England at Madras. In the same year India won their first Test series and this was against Pakistan. The Indian cricket team continued to display improvement in their game during the early 1950s and in 1956 they had a series win against New Zealand.

In the 1970s the Indian spin quartet comprising of Srinivas Venkatraghavan, Bhagwat Chandrashekhar, E.A.S. Prasanna and Bishen Singh Bedi was very famous. In the same era Sunil Gavaskar and Gundappa Vishwanath emerged as one of the best Indian batsmen ever. During the series against the West Indies Gavaskar scored 774 runs and in one of the Test wins Dilip Sardesai scored 112.

In the 1980s India developed an aggressive batting line-up that comprised of the wristy Azharuddin, all rounder Ravi Shastri and Dilip Vengsarkar.

In 1983 India won the Cricket World Cup by defeating the favorites West Indies in the final and this was majorly due to a robust bowling performance. During this era Kapil Dev and Sunil Gavaskar reached the topmost point of their careers. In 1989 Sachin Tendulkar and in 1990 Anil Kumble were included in the team which enhanced the team’s level.

In 1996 Azharuddin was substituted by Tendulkar as the skipper. However at the start of 1998 Tendulkar gave up the captaincy and Azharuddin was again given the captainship. As the onus of captaincy was removed Tendulkar became the world’s leading scorer in both One Day Internationals and Tests. In the same era India had a Test series win over Australia which was ranked as the best team in the world.

In 2000 John Wright was appointed as the first ever foreign coach for India. India defeated the Australian team in 2001. In the 2003-04 season India drew a Test series 1-1 with the world champions Australia. Further India won a One day International and Test series against Pakistan.

India could not reach the final eight teams in the 2007 World Cup. However, the team won the first Twenty20 World Cup hosted by South Africa by defeating Pakistan by five runs in an exciting final. If measured by the winning percentage India is the most successful Twenty20 team. MS Dhoni was the captain of the side.

Then, under Dhoni, India also went on to win the 2011 edition of the World Cup, repeating what they had done in 1983. On their way to the final, they also beat Australia in the quarter-finals, Pakistan in the semi-finals, before overcoming Sri Lanka in a power-packed final at Wankhede in Mumbai.

As in June 2011, they are the number one Test match side, a ranking that they had obtained in early 2010.

After Wright, Greg Chappell had taken over as the coach of the Indian team, but did not have a very successful stint. He was followed by Gary Kirsten, who was hailed as one of the best to have coached India, but after the successful World Cup in 2011, he did not renew his contract because of family reasons. Former England coach Duncan Fletcher has now taken over the role.

Major achievements • India Test Cricket team’s highest ever score was a 705/7 against Australia in Sydney, 2004. • India One Day cricket team’s highest is 413/5 against Bermuda in the 2007 Cricket World Cup. • 2 World Cup titles in 1983 and 2011. • 1 Twenty20 World title in 2007.