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Indian cricket team The Indian cricket team is the highest paid (in terms of sponsorships) sports team in the world. The Board of Control for Cricket in India is the main governing body for cricket in India. It made its Test debut on June 25, 1932 at Lord's, England, becoming the sixth Test team. In 1983, they won the Cricket World Cup and reached the final in 2003. It is now considered by many as one of the top cricket teams in the world. Ranked Third in the ICC Test Championship, it is officially the best ranked Asian team in the world of Cricket. For nearly fifty years, the Indian cricket team was weaker than most of the other international Test cricket teams, such as Australia and England. The team gained strength in the 1970s with the appearance of Sunil Gavaskar and has been a top team since. In recent times, the team has been very successful in ODIs. Since Rahul Dravid was appointed captain, India have won 12 games and lost only 4. The team contains players who are considered by many as the world's best, these include cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar. History of Indian international cricket Early history Some of the earliest heroes of Indian cricket were CK Nayudu and Lala Amarnath. India made its Test debut in England in 1932 led by CK Nayudu, and its first series as an independent country was in 1948 against Australia at Brisbane. Australia were led by Sir Don Bradman while India was led by Lala Amarnath. The test performance was optimistic, with Nissar getting 5-93 and 1-42 in the match against England which India lost by 158 runs. India's first ever Test victory came against England at Madras in 1952. India's first series victory was against Pakistan the same year. 1983 World Cup in England India upset the West Indies in 1983 to claim the Prudential Cricket World Cup for the first time, the captain was all-rounder Kapil Dev. India and the West Indies had cruised through the preliminary rounds in Group B while England and Pakistan emerged the victors from Group A. In the group stages, most considered India the underdogs, and their win against West Indies was categorized as similar to Zimbabwe's win over Australia. They were, in fact, quoted as having odds of 66 to 1 before the beginning of the match [3]. Both England and Pakistan, however, lost to their respective opponents (India beat England and the West Indies beat Pakistan). The final was considered somewhat of an anticlimax, most expecting a clear West Indies win although India had beaten them in the preliminary rounds. The West Indies tumbled India out for 183 and were cruising on their way to a memorable victory at 2-57 before suffering a minor collapse. They were annihilated by the Indian bowlers and reached 6-76 before providing some sort of resistance. They were all out for 140, India won by 43 runs. The heroes of the day were Mohinder Amarnath (3/12 and 26) and Kris Srikkanth (top scorer with 38). The team that won the World Cup comprised of: 1. SM Gavaskar 2. K Srikkanth 3. M Amarnath 4. Yashpal Sharma 5. SM Patil 6. N Kapil Dev (captain) 7. KBJ Azad 8. RMH Binny 9. S Madan Lal 10. SMH Kirmani (wicket-keeper) 11. BS Sandhu Notable Indian Cricketers Some of India's star cricketers of the 1950s and 1960s were Vinoo Mankad, Hemu Adhikari, Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, Vijay Hazare, Vijay Merchant, Mushtaq Ali, 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 Venkataraghavan. 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 under the captaincy of Ajit Wadekar. Than came the emergence of Mohinder Amarnath and "Mr. Dependable" Dilip Vengsarkar who was the undisputed No. 1 batsman in 1986-87. Kapil Dev emerged as a quality all-rounder in this decade. During the 1980s, other players like Mohammed Azharuddin, Ravi Shastri, Laxman Sivaramakrishnan, Sanjay Manjrekar, Krish Srikkanth and Maninder Singh emerged. India won the Cricket World Cup in 1983 defeating West Indies in an exciting final. In 1985, India won the World Championship of Cricket in Australia. The Test series victory in 1986 in England remained, for nearly 19 years, the last Test series win outside subcontinent. Sunil Gavaskar became the first batsman to cross 10,000 runs in Test cricket and went on to register a record 34 centuries, surpassed recently by Sachin Tendulkar. Kapil Dev became the highest wicket taker in Test cricket, surpassing Richard Hadlee to take a total of 434 wickets- a record which has since been broken by the likes of Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan. 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. 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's strength has always been its batting lineup, it is considered by many to have one of the most extensive batting lineups in the world. With Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag all being selected to play for the ICC World XI. Tournament History World Cup 1975: First round 1979: First round 1983: Won 1987: Semi Finals 1992: 7th place 1996: Semi Finals 1999: 6th place 2003: Runners up ICC Champions Trophy 2002: Joint winners with Sri Lanka 2004: First round ICC Knockout 1998: Semi Finals 2000: Runners up Commonwealth Games 1998: First round Asian Test Championship 1998: 3rd place 2001/02: Did not participate Asia Cup 1984: Won 1986: Did not participate 1988: Won 1990/91: Won 1995: Won 1997: Runners up 2000: 3rd place 2004: Runners up Austral-Asia Cup 1986: Runners up 1990: First round 1994: Runners up National Records Records - Tests Team records Highest team total: 705-7 decl v Australia at Sydney (2003/04) Lowest team total: 42 v England at Lord's (1974) Individual records Most matches: 132 by Sachin Tendulkar followed by 131 by Kapil Dev [ Batting Most runs: 10469 by Sachin Tendulkar Best average: 58.59 by Rahul Dravid Highest individual score: 309 by Virender Sehwag v Pakistan at Multan (2003/04) Record partnership: 413 P Roy and MH Mankad v New Zealand at Chennai 1955/56 (1st wicket) Most centuries: 35 by Sachin Tendulkar Bowling Most wickets: 510 by Anil Kumble Best average: 28.71 by Bishan Singh Bedi Best innings bowling: 10-74 by Anil Kumble Vs. Pakistan at Delhi (1998/99) Best match bowling: 16-136 by Narendra Hirwani v West Indies at Chennai (1987/88) Best career strike rate: 53.8 by Irfan Pathan Best economy rate: 1.67 by Bapu Nadkarni Fielding Most dismissals: 198 (160 catches, 38 stumpings) by Syed Kirmani Most dismissals in an innings: 6 (5 catches, 1 stummping) by Syed Kirmani v New Zealand at Christchurch (1975/76). Records - ODIs Team records Highest team total: 376-2 in 50 overs v New Zealand at Hyderabad (1999/00) Lowest team total: 54-10 in 26.3 overs v Sri Lanka at Sharjah (2000/01) Individual records Most matches: Sachin Tendulkar 362 Batting Most runs: 14146 Sachin Tendulkar Best average: 53.95 Mahendra Dhoni Highest individual score: 186* Sachin Tendulkar vs. New Zealand at Hyderabad (1999/00) Record partnership: 331 Rahul Dravid & Sachin Tendulkar for the 2nd wicket vs. New Zealand at Hyderabad (1999/00) Most centuries: 39 Sachin Tendulkar Bowling Most wickets: 329 Anil Kumble Best average: 25.22 Irfan Pathan Best innings bowling: 6/12 Anil Kumble v West Indies at Kolkata (1993/94) Best career strike rate: 30.5 Irfan Pathan Best career economy rate: 3.71 Kapil Dev Fielding Most dismissals: 181 Rahul Dravid Recent Performances In their history, the Indians have had trouble performing well overseas. But since about 2000, the Indian team seems to have undergone a resurrection under the guidance of former coach John Wright and former captain Saurav Ganguly. As a sample of their newly acquired confidence, they drew a Test series with Australia in Australia, which is usually considered a very tough tour. It was followed by a historic Test and ODI series win against arch rivals Pakistan on the tour. India has had a very good record against Australia and, before the 2004/05 tour, had never let Australia beat them in a Test Series in India since 1969. This was the reason for Australian Captain Steve Waugh labelling India as the Final Frontier. The famous 2001 Australian Tour of India started a good run for the team, as India beat Australia 2-1. India also came runners up to Australia in the 2003 World Cup Finals. However, in the past couple of years India has not been doing as well in ODIs (One Day Internationals). They improved their ratings to #5 on the ICC rankings on the back of recent performances while they are at #3 in Test cricket. The players who took India to great heights over the past 10 years such as Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Anil Kumble are growing older and not consistently maintaining form and fitness. Under the new coach Greg Chappell, who took over from John Wright in 2005, India faces a challenge to build a winning team before the 2007 Cricket World Cup in the West Indies. The series with Sri Lanka in 2005 is probably the best ODI series for India for quite a long time now. They had taken hold of the series by winning 6 out of the 7 one day internationals. The best part about this series has been the discovery of the young talent of the team, including Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Gautam Gambhir and Irfan Pathan. The series has also seen the return of Sachin Tendulkar to form after losing 6 months to a tennis elbow injury. The team also beat the Sri Lankans in the test series 2-0 to get to the 2nd spot in the test rankings from England which they eventually lost by losing the high profile series to Pakistan. Despite the loss, the Indian team has continued it's good form in the one day internationals, beating Pakistan 4-1 in their country. They have now successfully chased 13 consecutive matches on the trot. Forthcoming events for Team India includes England's tour of India and followed by India's tour of West Indies. The ICC ranking currently puts them as the best Asian team in both forms of the game. Current Team Some of its current members are Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, V. V. S. Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Piyush Chawla, Harbhajan Singh, Anil Kumble, Mohammad Kaif, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, R P Singh, Gautam Gambhir, Irfan Pathan, Zaheer Khan, Ajit Agarkar, S. Sreesanth, Ramesh Powar, Munaf Patel and Suresh Raina. Tests Win/Draw/Loss Record Under Current Captain: 4/5/3 ODIs Win/Loss Record Under Current Captain: 18/13 Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_cricket_team |
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