Indian cricket team

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History of Indian international cricket

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 Don Bradman while India was led by Lala Amarnath. India's first ever test victory came against England at Madras in 1952. India's first series victory was against Pakistan the same year.

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CK Nayudu - Lala Amarnath - 1948 - Australia - Brisbane - Don Bradman - England - Madras - 1952 - Pakistan

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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.

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1950s - 1960s - Vinoo Mankad - Hemu Adhikari - Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi - Vijay Hazare - Vijay Merchant - Mushtaq Ali - Chandu Borde - New Zealand - 1968

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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.

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Bishen Singh Bedi - Erapalli Prasanna - BS Chandrasekhar - Srinivas Venkataraghavan - Sunil Gavaskar - Gundappa Viswanath - West Indies - England - 1971 - Ajit Wadekar - Mohinder Amarnath - Dilip Vengsarkar - Kapil Dev - Decade

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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 the final. In 1985, India won the World Championship of Cricket in Australia. The test series victory in 1986 in England remains, to date, India's last test series win outside the subcontinent. Sunil Gavaskar became the first batsman to cross 10,000 runs in test cricket and went on to register a record 34 centuries, equalled 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.

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Mohammed Azharuddin - Ravi Shastri - Laxman Sivaramakrishnan - Sanjay Manjrekar - Krish Srikkanth - Maninder Singh - Cricket World Cup - 1983 - West Indies - 1985 - 1986 - Subcontinent - Sunil Gavaskar - Sachin Tendulkar - Richard Hadlee

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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.

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Sachin Tendulkar - Anil Kumble - 1989 - 1990

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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 reached the final of the 2003 Cricket World Cup played in South Africa, but lost to Australia.

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Pakistan - New Delhi - Sachin Tendulkar - Rahul Dravid - Saurav Ganguly - Javagal Srinath - 2003 - Cricket World Cup - South Africa

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Though there has always been no dearth of talent in the Indian team, and many Indian cricketers have been acknowledged and respected the world over, the Indians have had trouble performing well overseas. But the current Indian team seems to have realized the strength within them and, under the guidance of coach John Wright and captain Saurav Ganguly, jelled well into a team. 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.

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However, in the past couple of years India has not been doing as well in ODIs (One Day Internationals). They placed #7 on the ICC (International Cricket Council)'s rankings while they are #3 in test cricket. The players who took India to great heights over the past 10 years such as Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly and Anil Kumble are growing older and not consistently maintaining form. 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.

Related Topics:
Sachin Tendulkar - Saurav Ganguly - Anil Kumble - Greg Chappell - 2007 Cricket World Cup - West Indies

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