India at 150!!!



India just completed its 532-nd test at Melbourne, on 30th December 2018. And, India is completed its 150th Win in test cricket.

Here's a short post on India's test journey so far.

India started playing Test Cricket in June 1932, against England, under CK Nayudu, at the Lord's. England was lead by Douglas Jardine, more infamous for his later invention of the bodyline tactics. India lost that test by 158 runs.

From there on, India has played 532 tests till the Melbourne Test that concluded on the 30th of December 2018. India has won 150 of them, lost 165, drawn 216 and tied 1.

In total, India has capped 295 players, including Mayank Agarwal who debuted in Melbourne. 10 players have played more than 100 tests for India, Tendulkar leading with 200 tests.
During this journey in test cricket, India fielded 33 different players as captains, with MS Dhoni (60 tests) being the player who has led in most tests. Two players, Maharaja of Vizianagram and Nawab of Pataudi snr captained the team in all the tests they played, though both played only 3 tests each. Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi led India in 40 of the 46 tests he played, the highest percentage of led v/s played.

India's first win came in 1952 at Chennai, almost 20 years after its debut. The win came against England, lead by Donald Carr, who was a stand-in captain in Nigel Howard's absence. (Carr's test career ended with the two test matches in the series). India was captained by Vijay Hazare, and India was playing their 25th match. India won by an innings and 8 runs, Polly Umrigar and Pankaj Roy scored hundreds for India while Vinoo Mankad took 12 wickets (including an 8/55 in the first innings).

In the same year, 1952, India won two more tests, both against Pakistan. That was Pakistan's first test series after its formation, India won the 4 test series 2-1. Lala Amarnath was the Indian captain for the series. That was India's first series win.

India's first away victory came against New Zealand, in 1968. That was India's 105th test, a team captained by Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi. India won by 5 wickets, with Ajith Wadekar scoring fifties in both innings to help India's cause, ably helped by a 6/94 by E Prasanna in the second innings.
Given below is India's summary of performance against the other test playing nations. (Numbers given in brackets are Home/Away)
Australia
Tests Played - 97 (50/47)
Tests Won - 28 (21/7)
Tests Lost - 42 (13/29)
First Home Test - Chennai-1956 Captains -PR Umrigar & IWG Johnson
First Away Test - Brisbane-1947 Captains -L Amarnath & DG Bradman
First Home Win - Kanpur-1959 Captains -GS Ramchand & R Benaud
First Away Win - Melbourne-1977 Captains -BS Bedi & RB Simpson
Most Runs - SR Tendulkar-3630 (SR Tendulkar-1821/SR Tendulkar-1809)
Most Wickets - A Kumble-111 (Harbhajan Singh-86/N Kapil Dev-51)

England
Tests Played - 122 (60/62)
Tests Won - 26 (19/7)
Tests Lost - 47 (13/34)
First Home Test - Mumbai-1933 Captains -CK Nayudu & DR Jardine
First Away Test - Lord's-1932 Captains -CK Nayudu & DR Jardine
First Home Win - Chennai-1952 Captains -VS Hazare & DB Carr
First Away Win - The Oval-1971 Captains -AL Wadekar & R Illingworth
Most Runs - SR Tendulkar-2535 (SM Gavaskar-1331/SR Tendulkar-1575)
Most Wickets - BS Chandrasekhar-95 (BS Chandrasekhar-64/N Kapil Dev-43)

West Indies
Tests Played - 96 (47/49)
Tests Won - 20 (13/7)
Tests Lost - 30 (14/16)
First Home Test - Delhi-1948 Captains -L Amarnath & JDC Goddard
First Away Test - Port of Spain-1953 Captains -VS Hazare & JB Stollmeyer
First Home Win - Kolkata-1974 Captains -MAK Pataudi & CH Lloyd
First Away Win - Port of Spain-1971 Captains -AL Wadekar & GS Sobers
Most Runs - SM Gavaskar-2749 (SM Gavaskar-1345/R Dravid-1511)
Most Wickets - N Kapil Dev-89 (N Kapil Dev-54/A Kumble-45)

Pakistan
Tests Played - 59 (33/26)
Tests Won - 9 (7/2)
Tests Lost - 12 (5/7)
First Home Test - Delhi-1952 Captains -L Amarnath & AH Kardar
First Away Test - Dhaka (then part of Pakistan)-1955 Captains -MH Mankad & AH Kardar
First Home Win - Delhi-1952 Captains -L Amarnath & AH Kardar
First Away Win - Multan-2004 Captains -R Dravid & Inzamam-ul-Haq
Most Runs - SM Gavaskar-2089 (SM Gavaskar-1088/SM Gavaskar-1001)
Most Wickets - N Kapil Dev-99 (A Kumble-57/N Kapil Dev-44)

South Africa
Tests Played - 36 (16/20)
Tests Won - 11 (8/3)
Tests Lost - 15 (5/10)
First Home Test - Ahmedabad-1996 Captains -SR Tendulkar & WJ Cronje
First Away Test - Durban-1992 Captains -M Azharuddin & KC Wessels
First Home Win - Ahmedabad-1996 Captains -SR Tendulkar & WJ Cronje
First Away Win - Johannesburg-2006 Captains -R Dravid & GC Smith
Most Runs - SR Tendulkar-1741 (V Sehwag-924/SR Tendulkar-1161)
Most Wickets - A Kumble-84 (Harbhajan Singh-42/A Kumble-45)

New Zealand
Tests Played - 57 (34/23)
Tests Won - 21 (16/5)
Tests Lost - 10 (2/8)
First Home Test - Hyderabad-1955 Captains -Ghulam Ahmed & HB Cave
First Away Test - Dunedin-1968 Captains -MAK Pataudi & BW Sinclair
First Home Win - Mumbai (BS)-1955 Captains -PR Umrigar & HB Cave
First Away Win - Dunedin-1968 Captains -MAK Pataudi & BW Sinclair
Most Runs - R Dravid-1659 (R Dravid-893/SR Tendulkar-842)
Most Wickets - BS Bedi-57 (R Ashwin-45/EAS Prasanna-35)

Sri Lanka
Tests Played - 44 (20/24)
Tests Won - 20 (11/9)
Tests Lost - 7 (0/7)
First Home Test - Chennai-1982 Captains -SM Gavaskar & B Warnapura
First Away Test - Colombo (SSC)-1985 Captains -N Kapil Dev & LRD Mendis
First Home Win - Nagpur-1986 Captains -N Kapil Dev & LRD Mendis
First Away Win - Colombo (SSC)-1993 Captains -M Azharuddin & A Ranatunga
Most Runs - SR Tendulkar-1995 (R Dravid-846/SR Tendulkar-1155)
Most Wickets - A Kumble-74 (A Kumble-44/R Ashwin-38)

Bangladesh
Tests Played - 9 (1/8)
Tests Won - 7 (1/6)
Tests Lost - 0 (0/0)
First Home Test - Hyderabad-2017 Captains -V Kohli & Mushfiqur Rahim
First Away Test - Dhaka-2000 Captains -SC Ganguly & Naimur Rahman
First Home Win - Hyderabad-2017 Captains -V Kohli & Mushfiqur Rahim
First Away Win - Dhaka-2000 Captains -SC Ganguly & Naimur Rahman
Most Runs - SR Tendulkar-820 (V Kohli-242/SR Tendulkar-820)
Most Wickets - Z Khan-31 (R Ashwin-6/Z Khan-31)

Zimbabwe
Tests Played - 11 (5/6)
Tests Won - 7 (4/3)
Tests Lost - 2 (0/2)
First Home Test - Delhi-1993 Captains -M Azharuddin & DL Houghton
First Away Test - Harare-1992 Captains -M Azharuddin & DL Houghton
First Home Win - Delhi-1993 Captains -M Azharuddin & DL Houghton
First Away Win - Bulawayo-2001 Captains -SC Ganguly & HH Streak
Most Runs - R Dravid-979 (SR Tendulkar-678/R Dravid-475)
Most Wickets - A Kumble-38 (A Kumble-24/IK Pathan-21)
India played one test against Afghanistan at Bengaluru and won that test.


A look across the dacades show that Team India has continuously improved it's winning habits. 90% if India's wins came after 1970, 59% after 2000.
Note: The Win% shown here are wins against the tests which produced results, draws are not considered.
1930s 
Tests - 7, Won - 0, Lost - 5, Drawn - 2, Win% - .0%, Main Captains - CK Nayudu-4, Vizianagram-3
Major Batsmen -VM Merchant, CK Nayudu, L Amar Singh
Major Bowlers -L Amar Singh, M Nissar, CK Nayudu

1940s 
Tests - 13, Won - 0, Lost - 6, Drawn - 7, Win% - .0%, Main Captains - L Amarnath-10, Nawab of Pataudi snr-3
Major Batsmen -VS Hazare, RS Modi, MH Mankad
Major Bowlers -MH Mankad, L Amarnath, DG Phadkar

1950s 
Tests - 44, Won - 6, Lost - 17, Drawn - 21, Win% - 26.1%, Main Captains - VS Hazare-14, PR Umrigar-8
Major Batsmen -PR Umrigar, P Roy, VL Manjrekar
Major Bowlers -SP Gupte, MH Mankad, Ghulam Ahmed

1960s 
Tests - 52, Won - 9, Lost - 21, Drawn - 22, Win% - 30.0%, Main Captains - MAK Pataudi-36, NJ Contractor-12
Major Batsmen -CG Borde, MAK Pataudi, ML Jaisimha
Major Bowlers -EAS Prasanna, RG Nadkarni, SA Durani

1970s 
Tests - 64, Won - 17, Lost - 19, Drawn - 28, Win% - 47.2%, Main Captains - BS Bedi-22, SM Gavaskar-17
Major Batsmen -SM Gavaskar, GR Viswanath, DB Vengsarkar
Major Bowlers -BS Bedi, BS Chandrasekhar, S Venkataraghavan

1980s 
Tests - 81, Won - 11, Lost - 21, Drawn - 49, Win% - 34.4%, Main Captains - N Kapil Dev-34, SM Gavaskar-30
Major Batsmen -DB Vengsarkar, SM Gavaskar, N Kapil Dev
Major Bowlers -N Kapil Dev, RJ Shastri, Maninder Singh

1990s 
Tests - 69, Won - 18, Lost - 20, Drawn - 31, Win% - 47.4%, Main Captains - M Azharuddin-47, SR Tendulkar-22
Major Batsmen -SR Tendulkar, M Azharuddin, R Dravid
Major Bowlers -A Kumble, J Srinath, SLV Raju
2000s 
Tests - 103, Won - 40, Lost - 27, Drawn - 36, Win% - 59.7%, Main Captains - SC Ganguly-49, R Dravid-25
Major Batsmen -R Dravid, SR Tendulkar, VVS Laxman
Major Bowlers -A Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Z Khan

2010s 
Tests - 99, Won - 49, Lost - 29, Drawn - 21, Win% - 62.8%, Main Captains - MS Dhoni-50, V Kohli-45
Major Batsmen -V Kohli, CA Pujara, M Vijay
Major Bowlers -R Ashwin, I Sharma, RA Jadeja

A big jump did occur in the 1970s, when Indian Test Cricket really came of age. Players like Sunil Gavaskar and G Vishwanath were superstars in batting while the famed Indian Spin Quartet came into action more. 1980s saw the emergence of more accomplished batsmen, Vengsarkar, Amarnath, Azhar and Gavaskar himself imposing more, but the bowling was not at the best in Test Cricket. Kapil Dev often took the major share of bowling, leading to a slightly ineffective bowling unit. The average runs given per wicket was around 36, the highest among the years after 1950.

1990s saw the emergence of Sachin Tendulkar, with Azharuddin at the helm for most part of it. But India's away wins was hollow during this decade. India won only one test abroad, that was against Sri Lanka in 1993. With Sourav Ganguly coming as the captain in the 2000s, things started looking better in the away-wins column.

This is how India fared in the matches outside India.
1930s = Tests - 4, Won - 0, Lost - 3, Drawn - 1, Win% - .0%
1940s = Tests - 8, Won - 0, Lost - 5, Drawn - 3, Win% - .0%
1950s = Tests - 19, Won - 0, Lost - 9, Drawn - 10, Win% - .0%
1960s = Tests - 16, Won - 3, Lost - 13, Drawn - 0, Win% - 18.8%
1970s = Tests - 30, Won - 6, Lost - 12, Drawn - 12, Win% - 33.3%
1980s = Tests - 39, Won - 3, Lost - 12, Drawn - 24, Win% - 20.0%
1990s = Tests - 39, Won - 1, Lost - 15, Drawn - 23, Win% - 6.3%
2000s = Tests - 56, Won - 19, Lost - 19, Drawn - 18, Win% - 50.0%
2010s = Tests - 54, Won - 17, Lost - 25, Drawn - 12, Win% - 40.5%

73% of India's away victories came after 2000, a good tribute to the leadership of Ganguly, Dravid, Dhoni and now Kohli.

Even this stats could be misleading, as we had teams like Bangladesh getting Test Status in the 2000s. Currently, the most valued performance about players is in the SENA countries, that is South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia, which have stronger teams and/or difficult conditions. West Indies is not considered now, as they are not a force to recon, but in the 1970s and 1980s, they were world beaters. Hence, for my calculations, I'm using SWENA. This is how India fared in the SWENA countries.

1930s = Tests - 4, Won - 0, Lost - 3, Drawn - 1, Win% - 0.0%
1940s = Tests - 8, Won - 0, Lost - 5, Drawn - 3, Win% - 0.0%
1950s = Tests - 14, Won - 0, Lost - 9, Drawn - 5, Win% - 0.0%
1960s = Tests - 16, Won - 3, Lost - 13, Drawn - 0, Win% - 18.8%
1970s = Tests - 27, Won - 6, Lost - 10, Drawn - 11, Win% - 37.5%
1980s = Tests - 24, Won - 3, Lost - 8, Drawn - 13, Win% - 27.3%
1990s = Tests - 31, Won - 0, Lost - 14, Drawn - 17, Win% - 0.0%
2000s = Tests - 35, Won - 8, Lost - 12, Drawn - 15, Win% - 40.0%
2010s = Tests - 42, Won - 9, Lost - 23, Drawn - 10, Win% - 28.1%
Here too, the period after 2000 marked a definite change in the statistics, with 58% of the wins in SWENA countries coming after the turn of the millennium.

As it can be seen, the decade of 2000 was by far the best in terms of wins abroad and the SWENA conditions. The current decade had some difficult tours to England and Australia where India was blanked, which caused the dip. The current decade is also seeing a big leap in the bowling strength, pricing out 16.33 wickets every match, compared to 12.5 in the 1980s.

Now, who were the best captains?

MS Dhoni captained India in 60 tests, putting him up to the top of the list. Sourav Ganguly captained in 49 while Azharuddin and Gavaskar captained in 47. Kohli has 45 to his name so far, and looks well on course to beat Dhoni.
For the wins, Kohli led India to 26 wins out of 45 (win-to-test ratio of 0.58), while Dhoni led India to 27 wins in his 60 tests (win-to-test ratio of 0.45). Ganguly is third with 21 wins (47 tests, 0.43)

Looking at wins against result (number of matches won among the tests which had result, win or loss), Kohli has a win to result ratio of 0.72 while Ganguly has 0.62 and Dhoni has 0.60.
Gavaskar led India to 30 drawn matches, out of his 47 tests. Kapil Dev had 22 draws to his name, the captains who have drawn more tests.

When it comes to winning in SWENA countries, Kohli has a far better record of 6 wins against 8 losses from 17 matches, a good win-to-test ratio of 0.35 and win to result ratio of 0.43. But Rahul Dravid leads the group with a win to result ratio of 0.6, helped by wins in West Indies, South Africa and England in 2006-07. Teams under Kapil Dev lost two tests in West Indies in 83, and won two tests in England in 86, giving him a SWENA win to result ratio of 0.5 (7 other tests ended in draw!).

Some major stats about results
The first victory for India was by an innings and 8 runs, as mentioned earlier. India registered innings victories 42 times, 11 of them outside India. The team to suffer most was Sri Lanka, against whom India had 11 instances of innings wins. The largest margin was an innings and 272 runs in the recently concluded Rajkot test against West Indies, also the debut test for Prithvi Shaw. India's first innings win outside India was in 1978, against Australia at Sydney. That happens to be the only instance in the 1900s when India could register an innings win abroad. The 10 other instances of innings wins abroad came after 2002.

India has lost by innings on 44 occasions, England beating them the most, 14 times. But the team that has beaten India by innings in India is West Indies, 6 times. The worst loss was when West Indies defeated India by an innings and 336 runs at Kolkata in 1958, India succumbed to the pace bowling from Roy Gilchrist and Wes Hall.
India had 10 wicket wins on 8 occasions, the latest being the win against West Indies at Hyderabad in October. India lost by 10 wickets on 17 occasions.
The highest margin in terms of runs in Indian win is by 337 runs, against South Africa at Delhi in 2015. The largest margin of loss is by 342 runs, in 2004 Nagpur against Australia.

2018, the year that was
A couple of away records were broken this year, 2018. Virat Kohli became the highest runs scorer abroad in a calendar year, beating Rahul Dravid by 1 run. Bumrah and Shami broke the record set by Anil Kumble for the most wickets abroad in a calendar year. And that sums up why India had a good year in 2018, during which it won 7 tests, lost 7 tests, but more importantly, took 20 wickets in all but two tests, 265 of the possiblel 280 wickets. And Bumrah, Shami and Ishant Sharma took 130 out of the 199 wickets that Indian bowlers took abroad.

Most Abroad Runs in a calendar year
1138 - V Kohli (2018), 1137 - R Dravid (2002), 1065 - M Amarnath (1983)
Most Abroad Wickets in a calendar year
48 - JJ Bumrah (2018), 45 - Mohammed Shami (2018), 41 - A Kumble (2006)
Most Home Runs in a calendar year
1047 - GR Viswanath (1979), 964 - V Kohli (2016), 898 - V Kohli (2017)
Most Home Wickets in a calendar year
58 - N Kapil Dev (1979), 55 - R Ashwin (2016), 46 - EAS Prasanna (1969)

Top performers against India
Top 3 Batsmen
RT Ponting - 2555 runs
AN Cook - 2431 runs
CH Lloyd - 2344 runs
Top 3 Bowlers
JM Anderson - 110 wkts
M Muralitharan - 105 wkts
Imran Khan - 94 wkts



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Rangana Herath - Coming out of the shadows

The famed Indian Spin Quartet (Hunting in Packs - Part 1)

Doubling Up - The Wicket Keeper Captains