Historically India has not been a great touring team and over the years the team has suffered plenty of embarrassing losses when playing overseas. However, over the last 82 years of Test match cricket, India has produced performances in overseas Test series that have been the source of immense pride for the fans and this article looks at 10 of the very best. With the current India Vs England Invertec test series going on currently in England it becomes even more important for us to know our facts in cricket.
The 2007 series in England remains one of the India’s best performances overseas in recent memory and under the captaincy of Rahul Dravid the team responded brilliantly to win the 3 Test series 1-0, thanks to a thumping victory in the second Test at Nottingham. India were lucky to escape with a draw in the first Test at Lords as the last wicket pair of Dhoni and Sreesanth hung after a lot of time had been lost due to rain. In the second Test, India blew England away due to an outstanding performance by Zaheer Khan, who took 9 wickets. The last Test at the oval was a high scoring draw as India came up trumps in England after a gap of 21 years.
At a time when World Series Cricket had hijacked the leading stars in world cricket, a full strength Indian side went to Australia to face a depleted side and in a thrilling series they ran the hosts close but lost the series 3-2. You might be surprised as to why a lost series is in the list but you need to remember that in those days India used to fare pretty poorly in Australia and this series showed that they could run them close. India lost the first Test at Adelaide by 47 runs chasing a mammoth 492 in the 4 then stormed back at Sydney and then led the series 2-1 after a victory at Melbourne. Australia then turned the screws in the last 2 Tests and ended up winning the series. However, the Indian team got a grand reception from their fans as no one expected them to play so bravely.
It looked like it would be business as usual for India in South Africa when they were shot out for 136 runs in the first innings at Centurion Park and ended up losing the first Test by an innings and 25 runs. Things were expected to get worse at Kingsmead, Durban and they did as India did not last the first day to be dismissed for 205 runs, however the bowlers led by Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh responded to bundle out the South Africans for 131. V V S Laxman then scored a superb 96 to hold the Indian innigs together as South Africa were set a challenging target of 303 runs. It was Zaheer Khan again and Sreesanth who did the damage as India won the game by 87 runs. The third Test ended in a draw to make sure that India came back with their honour intact for the first time from South Africa.
This was India’s first series win after 41 years in Kiwi country and they had to win it the hard way. India won the first Test at Hamilton comfortably due to the stellar efforts of Ishant Sharma and Harbhajan Singh in the first and second innings respectively, in addition to Sachin Tendulkar’s masterly 160 that set the game up fir India. In the second test at Napier, New Zealand scored big and it was only because of Gautam Gambhir’s legendary innings of 137 runs in 643 minutes that made sure that India were able to hold on to their lead. India could have won the third Test at Basin Reserve had rain not intervened with New Zealand struggling to save the Test with 8 wickets down in the 4th innings, however the 1-0 victory was without a doubt a commendable one.
India were beaten 2-1 after leading the series 1-0 at one point in their previous tour of the West Indies in 2002 and in 2006 they wanted to make amends for that blip as a strong team went to the West Indies. The first three Tests of the 4 Test series were all high scoring draws and so the final Test at Jamaica became the series decider. On an uneven pitch at Jamaica, captain Rahul Dravid held the team together in both the innings with scores of 81 and 68 in this low scoring game. India scored 200 in the first innings but then dismissed the Windies for 103 with Harbhajan picking up a fiver. India could only manage 171 in their second innings to set West Indies a target of 270. West Indies were dismissed for 219 thanks to Anil Kumble’s 6 wicket haul and India registered a famous series win.
When India went to Australia in the Australian summer of 2003, everyone thought that it will be one sided affair considering the sort of team the Australians had, however India surprised everyone with an outstanding display of attacking cricket that took the hosts by surprise. After Ganguly rubbished the Aussies’ threat of ‘chin music’ with a superb 144 in the first Test at Brisbane, the Indians won the second Test at Adelaide thanks to centuries from Dravid and Laxman as well as a 6 wicket burst from Agarkar in the second innings. The Australians fought back in the 3rd Test at Melbourne to square the series but it was India who dominated the drawn 4th Test at Sydney by posting a mammoth 705 in the first innings as the Australians held on nervously for a draw.
This was a win that cost David Gower the captaincy mid series and firmly proved that the Indian team were not the World Champions for nothing. India won the first Test at Lord’s by 5 wickets after superb bowling performances by Chetan Sharma and Kapil Dev, while in the second Test at Leeds they thrashed England by 279 runs. Dilip Vengsarkar was the batting star of the series and scored a century in each of the first two tests to set up a historic series win for India.
The English summer of 1971 was a decidedly glorious one for a young Indian team under captain Ajit Wadekar as they recorded India’s first Test series win in Old Blighty. The first two Tests at Lord’s and Old Trafford were drawn, however India would have been one down at Lord’s if rain hadn’t intervened with the team staring down the barrel at 145-8 in the last innings of the game. However, it all came together on the 4th day at the Oval as B S Chandrashekhar bowled a devastating spell to pick up 6-38 as England crashed to 101 all out leaving India with a target of 173 runs. After a bit of a struggle India scored the runs and sent the nation into collective frenzy.
1971 was in fact one of the greatest seasons in Indian cricket as they finally came into their own as a cricketing nation and it started with their remarkable win against the Gary Sobers led West Indian team. India won the second Test of the series by 7 wickets after stellar performances from the spin trio of Bedi, Prasanna and Chandrashekhar to go with the brilliant century scored by Dilip Sardesai in the first innings. The rest of the Tests were drawn but Sunil Gavaskar emerged as the young star in his debut series as he plundered 774 runs in the 5 Tests.
At number 1 is the glorious series victory against arch rivals Pakistan at their own backyard and what makes the victory even more important in Indian cricket history is the way in which India bullied Pakistan away from home. In the first Test at Multan, Virender Sehwag scored a record breaking 309 while Sachin Tendulkar scored 194 not out to take India to a mammoth 675 and Indie won it by an innings. They lost the second one in Rawalpindi but stormed back to beat Pakistan by an innings once again in the rd Test at Karachi. The 3rd Test saw Dravid scoring a brilliant 270.
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