Seven decades of Indian Test cricket
Anil Gulati - 25 June 2002

June 25 marks the completion of 70 years of Indian Test cricket. It was on this very day in 1932 that CK Nayudu accompanied his English counterpart Douglas Jardine onto the field for the toss at Lord's. India thus joined the family of Test-playing nations as its sixth member, after England, Australia, South Africa, the West Indies and New Zealand.

India's Test history makes for absorbing reading. They entered the fray of Test cricket to suffer the humiliation of a defeat in their inaugural match, losing by a huge margin of 158 runs. The following year, stumps were pitched on Indian soil for Test matches. Douglas Jardine led England and inflicted defeats on India at Mumbai (by nine wickets) and at Chennai (by 202 runs).

In 1936, the Indian team visited England on a return tour. Their performance once again was dismal, but by this time, several Indian cricketers like Nayudu, Vijay Merchant, Mushtaq Ali, Lala Amarnath, Mohammad Nissar and Amar Singh had started to emerge as brilliant cricketers. They had to wait for two decades, however, before tasting victory for the first time.

In 1952, India scored a sensational victory over England at Chennai by an innings and eight runs. Pankaj Roy and Polly Umrigar hit centuries, while Vinoo Mankad captured eight wickets in the first innings and four in the second.

Since then, India's cricketing skills have made rapid leaps and bounds. The country has not only been involved in some of the most interesting Test battles over the years but has achieved some glorious victories as well. Several eminent cricketers, who went on to creat records and thrill cricket lovers all over the world, donned the Indian cap with pride.

India's most illustrious phase came during the 70s, when Ajit Wadekar led an Indian side successfully to the Caribbean in 1971. Every Indian sports enthusiast will cherish the memories of the second Test of the series, at Port of Spain in Trinidad, a match that saw Sunil Gavaskar make his debut. India went on to create history by beating the mighty West Indians in their own backyard, clinching the rubber with a display of fighting cricket.

Another share of glory was in store for India during their tour of England. After the first two Tests at Lord's and Old Trafford had been drawn, India won the final Test at the Oval, defeating England by four wickets. In the process, India recorded her first-ever series win on English soil. The glorious moment came at 2:42 p.m. on the fifth day, when Abid Ali hit the stroke of victory by cutting Luckhurst to the boundary. The win was made possible by a devastating spell of leg-spin bowling by India's leg-spin great B.S.Chandrashekhar. Taking out six batsmen in the second innings, Chandra bowled 18.1 overs and conceded just 38 runs to capture these wickets.

By the end of the series, it was a general observation that the Indian spinners in Bishan Singh Bedi, Erapalli Prasanna, Chandra and Srinivas Venkataraghavan were attaining perfection as world- class bowlers, while Farokh Engineer, Abid Ali, Eknath Solkar, Gundappa Vishwanath and Gavaskar formed a fighting batting backbone.

Then came the series that every Indian would love expunged from the record books. India suffered the ignominy of losing all three Tests of the 1974 tour of England, meeting with abject humiliation at Lord's, when they were dismissed for their lowest- ever total of 42.

The heroic win at Port of Spain in 1976 makes up for that in some measure. India successfully chased down a massive total of 403 in the fourth innings, with Gavaskar and Vishwanath scoring centuries. Sturdy support was provided by Brijesh Patel and Mohinder Amarnath, and India achieved the target with seven mandatory overs still to be bowled.

Playing against Australia, India have produced wonderful moments of cricketing entertainment on several occasions. Who can forget the thrilling action of the Tied Test at Chennai in 1986? Teh memories of the 1977-78 series in Australia will also be green in the minds of thousands of cricket-lovers. After losing the first two Tests, India won the third at Melbourne, with Chandra once again dictating terms. India repeated the performance at Sydney in the very next Test, with the triumvirate of Bedi, Prasanna and Chandra causing the Australian batsmen to totter in both innings.

Doubtless India's cricketers in the years to come will provide as many moments of joy as the last 70 years of cricketers have; hopefully, though, they will provide many more.

The views expressed above are solely those of the guest contributor and are carried as written, with only minor editing for grammar, to preserve the original voice. These contributed columns are solely personal opinion pieces and reflect only the feelings of the guest contributor. Their being published on CricInfo.com does not amount to an endorsement by CricInfo's editorial staff of the opinions expressed.
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