India played its first test in 1932 and since then it has produced a series of great players and it’s difficult to count them all on fingers. Indian cricket boasts of a glittering history endowed with everything a cricket team desires to achieve. In this list, we present a series of the greatest moments in the history of Indian cricket.
1971- the year which defined Indian Cricket:
In 1971, India was not a cricket team that knew a lot about winning, especially overseas. However, Ajit Wadekar, India’s captain at that time inspired a young and inexperienced team to a couple of great moments in 1971. India won its first-ever test series on foreign soil against England in 1971. India did not have fast bowlers who could exploit those conditions. However, India, instead of regretting this backed its strength- a spin quartet and spun India to a 1-0 victory. This victory was followed by another series victory, this time in the West Indies. What else that first-ever test series victory in the West Indies did was to give India a certain Sunil Gavaskar, the man who carried Indian cricket for the next 16 years.
India’s CB series victory in 2007-08:
The period of 2007-08 saw a revolution in Indian cricket under MS Dhoni, a revolution that saw India winning its most coveted trophies. This revolution started with the 2007-08 CB series in Australia. After a controversial Sydney test match and the monkeygate scandal, there was a lot of build-up to the series. India had just won the T20 World Cup and Dhoni had a vision in mind. He wanted to back youngsters and make India a good fielding side. Consequently, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and Virender Sehwag were dropped from the team owing to ordinary performances. This created a lot of controversy and Dhoni came under the scanner. However, India proved everybody wrong by winning that final leg 2-0 against Australia. This was India’s first-ever ODI series in Australia.
Test series win in Australia in 2018-19:
India has toured Australia on numerous occasions for test matches but came empty-handed every time. Perhaps India just did not have a bowling attack to penetrate through strong Australian batting line-ups. Perhaps, it was too difficult to win for an Asian team in that country. Both these facts were untrue for the series of 2018-19. India went with a fast-bowling attack like never before and it was Australia’s weakest team to host India in decades. India exploited the absence of Steve Smith and David Warner and a lack of confidence in the Australian dressing room post the ball-tampering saga. Cheteshwar Pujara led from the front and India became the first Asian team to win a test series in Australia. India had won only 5 tests in Australia before this tour. Sri Lanka has not won even a single test in Australia. Clearly, this is a great achievement.
Champions Trophy win 2013:
India went to England in 2013 with a team that was not fancied about much. Shikhar Dhawan had just made a comeback to the Indian team. Rohit Sharma had just been pushed to open the innings. Jadeja had just become the new all-rounder of the Indian team. Bhuvaneshwar Kumar was the latest new-ball bowler for India. Zaheer Khan, Gautam Gambhir and the likes were not selected. It was a young team and it was like a fairy tale. Dhawan’s inclusion worked, Rohit’s opening move worked, Jadeja performed with both bat and ball and Kumar picked up a lot of wickets. Everything fell into a place. The decisions that MS Dhoni made, especially in the final against England and the way he handled a young team made him a great player. He became the first captain to hold all three ICC Trophies and the test mace too.
ICC World T20 2007 win:
India’s first ICC tournament win in 24 years, the World T20 win in 2007 holds much more significance than one can think of. It happened just after the 50-overs World Cup debacle in the West Indies in 2007. T20 Cricket was the youngest child of cricket. People in India including senior authorities mocked its idea and at one stage India was not even ready to participate in the tournament. However, India did go in the tournament and the sail of the ship was handed over to a young and charismatic leader: MS Dhoni. Senior players like Tendulkar, Ganguly, Laxman, Dravid, Kumble, Zaheer etc. opted out of the tournament. It was a brigade of young players whom no one gave a chance. India did what no one expected them to do. There were moments of individual brilliance like Yuvraj’s six sixes and moments of collective planning and strategy such as preparing for a bowl-out which no other team saw coming. There were moments of brilliance from the captain such as giving the last over of the final to Joginder Sharma. It all worked out well and India did the unexpected- they became the T20 champions of the world. What followed was a revolution of T20 cricket. The country which once disliked the idea of T20 cricket is now the home of what we call is the pinnacle of T20 cricket- the IPL.
1983 World Cup Win:
What put India on the cricketing map was the victory in the 1983 World Cup in England. Indian teams of that era had gun players too but they did not know how to win world tournaments. And the stronger teams like the West Indies and Australia were too strong to lose to lesser teams like India. So once again India entered that tournament without people giving them much of a chance. However, a fiery Kapil Dev inspired his men to something unimaginable. Beating the West Indies once was a difficult task and India did that twice in the tournament. Dev led from the front scoring that epic 175 against Zimbabwe when India were 17/5. This prevented India’s elimination and India could go all the way. In the final as well, when Viv Richards like he always did, was taking the game away, Madan Lal took it upon himself to dismiss the danger man and what Dev took what he would surely call the most important catch of his life. It was a historical moment because it changed Indian cricket forever. It gave India the belief that they can win at the biggest stage. It inspired people to take up cricket as a career. It put India on the cricketing map and made Indians crazy about cricket.
2011 Cricket World Cup Win:
It won’t be wrong to say that India played this world cup for Sachin Tendulkar. They wanted to win it for him after all that he had done for Indian cricket for 23 years. No team had won the world cup at home before. It seemed difficult. But the way Indians managed themselves throughout the tournament was exemplary. They spent quality time together; they had well laid-out plans; players were experienced enough to know their game; horses for courses were used for bowling combinations. Once again, everything fell into place and every decision turned out to be a masterpiece. Zaheer Khan was the one who led the bowling attack. However, it was Yuvraj Singh who made the tournament his own. Performing with both bat and ball given his health condition, Yuvraj became a legend of Indian cricket. Dhoni, once again was the master behind the proceedings: promoting himself to number 5 in the final, playing Ashwin ahead of a third seamer in the quarter-final and then leaving him out for Ashish Nehra in the semi-final, it worked for the best. And Tendulkar always led with the bat. It was the greatest moment in the lives of Indian cricket fans. The 28-year drought of a world cup was gone. The streets across India remained packed for hours in pursuit of celebration. It was something to remember for the rest of our lives!
