The tale of Team India’s three Test series wins in England

India has won three Test series thus far in England in 1971, 1986 and 2007.

Winning a Test match in England is a herculean task. If achieved, winning a Test series should be boasted for a long time given that it is an arduous task. England has modeled a Test territory that has become almost unconquerable by the visitors. 

1932 became the year when India made their Test debut and officially toured England for the first time.

June 25, 1932, was a special day for the Indians, as the team played the first official Test match against England at the Lord’s ground. CK Nayudu captained Team India on their maiden tour of England. However, a star-studded England team dominated the visitors easily in the Test series. 

But how have been India as a visitor to England for Test matches since then? They have managed to win only three series in England to date.

The Indian team has three different tales of Test series wins in England. Each having three different captains as the leaders of the heroic winning team and each victory coming in three different decades.

1971: First Chapter- History is Written 

India finally realized their dream of winning a Test series against its former rulers in 1971. India was captained by Ajit Wadekar on the three-Test tour of England.

Ajit Wadekar, Eknath Solkar, Gundappa Vishwanath, and Sunil Gavaskar starred with the bat, while Bishan Singh Bedi and S Venkataraghavan were the heroes with the ball as India drew the first Test at Lord’s.

The second Test match at Old Trafford also ended in a draw, making the third encounter at the Oval the deciding one, in which India pulled off a terrific four-wicket win.

England had the upper hand in the first innings. But Bhagwat Chandrasekhar’s 6-38 bundled out the hosts for 101 in the second innings. India had a 173-run target to chase in their second innings, which they achieved easily.

Captain Wadekar scored 45, and Dilip Sardesai racked up 40 off 156 balls as India won the match by 4 wickets and pocketed their maiden Test series win in England 1-0.

Ajit Wadekar was India’s leading scorer in the series with 204 runs. Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan was the highest wicket-taker in the series, with 13 wickets.

1986: The Second Win

This was a more thumping Test series win of sorts as Kapil Dev guided the Indian team to a 2-0 win in the three-match series.

India had to spend 15 more years to conquer England in their own backyard after the maiden victory in 1971. India’s first World Cup-winning skipper in 1983, Kapil Dev, brought India the second Test series in 1986. 

The first Test match was played at Lord’s and was owned by captain Kapil Dev and batsman Dilip Vengsarkar. Though Graham Gooch made 114, Chetan Sharma’s 5/64 kept England to 264 in 1st innings. India replied with 341 with Dilip Vengsarkar making 126* and Mohinder Amarnath making 69 runs.

In the second do, England capitulated for 180 with Kapil Dev taking 4 wickets and left-arm spinner Maninder Singh taking 3/9. Kapil then slammed 23* in 10 balls as India chased down the 134-run target with 5 wickets to spare. It took India 54 years to record their first-ever Test victory at Lord’s.  

In the second Test at Headingley, Thanks to Dilip Vengsarkar’s 61, India put on 272 runs on board in the first innings. In reply, Roger Binny’s sublime 5/40 bundled out England for 102. Vengsarkar then stood out in India’s second innings score of 237 with a majestic 102* and helped his team post a target of 407. Four wickets from Maninder Singh and two each from Kapil Dev and Roger Binny meant England could manage 128 in reply. 

India won the second match at Headingley by 279 runs and went 2-0 up in the series. 

Dilip Vengsarkar starred with the bat, along with Mohinder Amarnath, Mohammad Azharuddin and Sunil Gavaskar for company. With the ball, Chetan Sharma, Maninder Singh, Captain Kapil Dev and Roger Binny shined.

2007: Ending The Hibernation of Two decades 

It took India a further 21 years to achieve another Test series win on English soil. India’s third Test series win in England came in 2007. India clutched a 1-0 Test series win in the English summer. 

Rahul Dravid was the wall and the captain, Sachin Tendulkar was swinging the willow, Zaheer Khan was rolling the ball on the field. A long-haired MS Dhoni was behind the stumps.

India barely managed to hold onto a draw in the first Test match against England which was played at Lord’s. England put up 298 in their first innings and in reply James Anderson’s 5/42 and Ryan Sidebottom’s 4/65 kept India to 201.

Kevin Pietersen’s 138 took England to 282 in the second innings, setting India a target of 380 to win. Dinesh Karthik scored a half-century, but England bowlers kept the pressure on Indian batting. In the end, MS Dhoni’s 79* and rain helped India save the Test match.

The second Test in Nottingham saw England make only 198 runs in the first innings, thanks to Zaheer Khan’s 4/59.

On the other hand, India totaled 481 runs in the first innings, with half-centuries from Dinesh Karthik, Wasim Jaffer, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, and Sourav Ganguly.

England, however, amassed 355 runs in the second innings with captain Michael Vaughan making 124. The infamous jelly-bean incident had fired up Zaheer Khan, who picked 5/75 and 9 wickets in the match.

India was set a paltry target of 73 to win and Dinesh Karthik and Wasim Jaffer's 47 opening wicket stand led them towards victory by 7 wickets. 

The third match at the Oval, saw Anil Kumble realizing his lifelong dream of scoring a Test match century. India batted first and put up 664 on the board.

A superlative Anil Kumble registered his maiden Test hundred, a 110*. Other top-scorers were MS Dhoni (92), Sachin Tendulkar (82), and Dinesh Karthik (91).

England replied with 345 with half-centuries from Alastair Cook, Paul Collingwood, and Ian Bell. In turn, India declared their second innings on 180/6, setting England 500 runs to win the match and square the series 1-1.

The total was too much for England, who played for a draw as Paul Collingwood slammed 101 and the match ended with no winners. However, India registered their third Test series win in England by a margin of 1-0.

Dinesh Karthik conjured 263 runs and led the tally as the highest run-scorer in the series. Zaheer Khan earned the Man of the Series award for scalping 18 wickets. S Sreesanth assuredly partnered Khan in the series. The series unveiled the ultimate battle between the two nations.

Disappointment since then and anticipation of a mouth-watering clash in 2021

Since then, India has traveled to England thrice, in 2011, 2014, and 2018. All the tours proved to be disastrous for India. Under Dhoni’s leadership, India lost the four-match Test series 4-0 in 2011 and five-match Test series 3-1 in 2014. 

In the 2011 Test series, India was rightly outplayed by England and the only saving grace for them was Rahul Dravid’s encore performances, He smashed three centuries in the series. He conjured 461 runs and shared the Player of the Series trophy with English pacer Stuart Broad. 

In 2014, after drawing the first Test in Trent Bridge, India gained a 1-0 series lead after victory in Lord’s Test thanks to Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and Ajinkya Rahane’s amazing performances. Unfortunately, after that, England brutally thrashed India in the remaining three Tests to win the series 3-1.

Much was expected from the 2018 tour of England, under the current skipper Virat Kohli’s captaincy. However, despite spirited performances from the captain and the fast bowlers, India suffered a 4-1 humiliating defeat in the five-match series.

However, the series was a success for individuals like Kohli (593), the highest scorer in the series, Cheteshwar Pujara (278), and India’s pace unit. India’s pace unit shared 51 scalps amongst them, with Ishant (18) being the leading wicket-taker for India.

But the individuals failed to win Test matches for India. The visitors had a golden chance of beating England in England as they were coming off poor performances against South Africa, Pakistan, and the West Indies on their turf before hosting India.

As we look forward to the 2021 five-Test series, India and England stand on the same ground, as the home team is coming off a 0-1 Test series loss to New Zealand, while the visitors lost the World Test Championship (WTC 2021) final to New Zealand.

However, India will still fancy themselves in this series, despite COVID concerns, given that England players are battling bio-bubble fatigue and missing one of their best players in Ben Stokes, who has pulled out of the Test series and taken an indefinite break from all cricket.

The upcoming five-Test series between England and India will have the cricket world glued on with anticipation as one of the best batting lineups in the world clash against some of the best fast bowlers England has produced.