Indian cricket team

The Indian cricket team is a national cricket team representing India. It made its Test debut on June 25, 1932 at Lord's, England. In 1983, they won the Cricket World Cup and reached the final in 2003.

Some of its current members are Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly (captain), Rahul Dravid (vice-captain), Virender Sehwag, V. V. S. Laxman, Yuvraj Singh,Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble. Famous former players include Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, and Mohammed Azharuddin.

History of Indian international cricket

Some of the earliest heroes of Indian cricket were CK Nayudu, Lala Amarnath, Mohammad Nissar. India's first series as an independent country was in 1948 against Australia at Brisbane. Australia were led by Don Bradman while India was led by Lala Amarnath. India's first ever test victory came against England at Madras in 1952. India's first series victory was against Pakistan the same year. Some of India's star cricketers of the 1950s and 1960s were Vinoo Mankad, Hemu Adhikari, Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, Chandu Borde and Subhash Gupte. India's first overseas series victory came against New Zealand in 1968. Most of the 1970s was dominated by India's spin quartet of Bishen Singh Bedi, Erapalli Prasanna, BS Chandrasekhar and Srinivas Venkatraghavan. This period also saw the emergence of two of India's best ever batsmen, Sunil Gavaskar and Gundappa Viswanath. This bunch of players was responsible for the back-to-back series wins in West Indies and England in 1971. Kapil Dev emerged as a quality all-rounder towards the end of this decade.

During the 1980s, other players like Mohammed Azharuddin, Ravi Shastri, Sanjay Manjrekar, Krish Srikkanth, Madan Lal and Maninder Singh emerged. India won the Cricket World Cup in 1983 defeating West Indies in the final. In 1985, India won the World Championship of Cricket in Australia. The test series victory in 1986 in England remains, to date, India's last test series win outside the sub-continent. The emergence of Sachin Tendulkar and Anil Kumble in 1989 and 1990 gave further proof of Indian cricket's depth and the Indian side went from strength to strength during the 1990s, though mostly at home.

Sri Lanka won the 1996 Cricket World Cup defeating Australia in the final. Their semi-final against India was abandoned and the game was awarded to Sri Lanka. In 1999, Anil Kumble became the second bowler to take all ten wickets in a Test match innings when he took 10 for 74 against Pakistan at New Delhi. Sachin Tendulkar continued to set new records while Rahul Dravid, Saurav Ganguly, Javagal Srinath made their mark in international cricket during this decade. India reached the final of the 2003 Cricket World Cup played in South Africa.

Indian cricket team

History of Indian international cricket

See also