Serious Series - Famous Indian Series Wins away from home

India has finally won a series in Australia, 71 years after their first series in Australia which happened back in 1947. They have played 11 series prior to the current one in Australia, losing 8 and drawing 3.

This post is about a few landmark away series wins that India achieved in the history of cricket.

Tour of New Zealand (1968) 4 Tests-India Won (3-1)

Captains - MAK Pataudi, BW Sinclair, GT Dowling

This was India's first overseas series win. India won the first test at Dunedin, on the strength of strong bowling performances by Prasanna and Bedi, but lost the second at Christchurch where New Zealand scored big in the first innings with GT Dowling scoring a double hundred. India won the third and fourth tests. Ajit Wadekar scoring a timely hundred in the third test at Wellington and Bapu Nadkarni's 6/43 (in 30 overs) helping India to dismiss New Zealand for 199 in the third innings to score an 8 wickets win. In the fourth test, Bedi and Prasanna teamed well to help another win, and thus the series.

Test 1 (Dunedin) - India won by 5 wickets

Test 2 (Christchurch) - New Zealand won by 6 wickets

Test 3 (Wellington) - India won by 8 wickets

Test 4 (Auckland) - India won by 272 runs

Best Batting Performances

GT Dowling - 471 Runs, 2 Hundreds, HS -239 (Christchurch)

AL Wadekar - 328 Runs, 1 Hundreds, HS -143 (Wellington)

FM Engineer - 321 Runs, 0 Hundreds, HS -63 (Christchurch)

RF Surti - 321 Runs, 0 Hundreds, HS -99 (Auckland)

Best Bowling Performances

EAS Prasanna - 24 Wkts, 5WI-2, 10WM-0, BB -6/94 (Dunedin)

BS Bedi - 16 Wkts, 5WI-1, 10WM-0, BB -6/127 (Christchurch)

RC Motz - 15 Wkts, 5WI-2, 10WM-0, BB -6/63 (Christchurch)

RG Nadkarni - 14 Wkts, 5WI-1, 10WM-0, BB -6/43 (Wellington)

Tour of West Indies (1971) 5 Tests-India Won (1-0)

Captains - AL Wadekar, GS Sobers

This was a landmark series win for India. For the first time, a team other than England and Australia managed to beat West Indies in West Indies.

West Indies was captained by Sir Gary Sobers, while India was led by Ajith Wadekar. With two big batsmen, Rohan Kanhai and Sobers in the team, and bowling led by Holder and Gibbs, West Indies was formidable. After the first drawn test, India gave the cap to young Sunil Gavaskar, whose twin fifties in the Port of Spain test played a major part in securing a 7 wicket win. Prasanna and Bedi took 7 wickets between them in the first innings while Venkatraghavan's 5/95 was the key in the second innings.

India went on to draw the next three tests, Gavaskar scored a match saving 220 in the second innings (to add to his hundred in the first) to save India from a certain defeat. Sunil Gavaskar completed the series as the highest run getter, with 4 hundreds.

Test 1 (Kingston) - Draw

Test 2 (Port of Spain) - India won by 7 wickets

Test 3 (Georgetown) - Draw

Test 4 (Bridgetown) - Draw

Test 5 (Port of Spain) - Draw

Best Batting Performances

SM Gavaskar - 774 Runs, 4 Hundreds, HS -220 (Port of Spain)

DN Sardesai - 642 Runs, 3 Hundreds, HS -212 (Kingston)

GS Sobers - 597 Runs, 3 Hundreds, HS -178 (Bridgetown)

CA Davis - 529 Runs, 2 Hundreds, HS -125 (Georgetown)

Best Bowling Performances

S Venkataraghavan - 22 Wkts, 5WI-1, 10WM-0, BB -5/95 (Port of Spain)

JM Noreiga - 17 Wkts, 5WI-2, 10WM-0, BB -9/95 (Port of Spain)

BS Bedi - 15 Wkts, 5WI-0, 10WM-0, BB -3/46 (Port of Spain)

GS Sobers - 12 Wkts, 5WI-0, 10WM-0, BB -3/72 (Georgetown)

Tour of England (1971) 3 Tests-India Won (1-0)

Captains - R Illingworth, AL Wadekar

The next tour that India took up after their historic win in West Indies was the series in England. Prior to the tour, India had only won 3 tests out of the 37 the two teams have played against, and England had 18. None of these three wins had come in England, so the history was not in favor of India. But that was to change.

The first two tests ended in draw. First test at Lord's was a close affair, with India losing 8 wickets in a chase of 183, ending up with 145/8. It was the third test at The Oval that things changed for India. Chandrasekhar ran through the batting order to take 6 for 38, dismissing England for 101 in their second innings. The target of 173 was chased down with 4 wickets left. 

None of the Indian batsmen scored hundred in this series, there were two from England. 

Test 1 (Lord's) - Draw

Test 2 (Manchester) - Draw

Test 3 (The Oval) - India won by 4 wickets

Best Batting Performances

BW Luckhurst - 244 Runs, 1 Hundreds, HS -101 (Manchester)

APE Knott - 223 Runs, 0 Hundreds, HS -90 (The Oval)

AL Wadekar - 204 Runs, 0 Hundreds, HS -85 (Lord's)

JH Edrich - 180 Runs, 0 Hundreds, HS -62 (Lord's)

Best Bowling Performances

S Venkataraghavan - 13 Wkts, 5WI-0, 10WM-0, BB -4/52 (Lord's)

BS Chandrasekhar - 13 Wkts, 5WI-1, 10WM-0, BB -6/38 (The Oval)

BS Bedi - 11 Wkts, 5WI-0, 10WM-0, BB -4/70 (Lord's)

N Gifford - 8 Wkts, 5WI-0, 10WM-0, BB -4/43 (Manchester)

Tour of England (1986) 3 Tests-India Won (2-0)

Captains - N Kapil Dev, DI Gower, MW Gatting, 

India had to wait for 15 more years before their next overseas series win came. It was against England again, but more emphatic than the 1971 series. India had the seam bowling options and a solid batting line up. The man who got them there was undoubtably the Colnel, Dilip Vengsarkar. With two hundreds, including a crucial 102 at Leeds playing with the middle order, Vengsarkar stole the series from England, scoring his third century in as many tests at Lord's. Chetan Sharma, relatively new to Test Cricket was the star in bowling, taking two 5-fors. David Gower lost his captaincy after the first test, the mantle moving on to Mike Gatting. Gatting did come to his own in the last test, scoring a 183 in the first innings that helped England draw the test.

Test 1 (Lord's) - India won by 5 wickets

Test 2 (Leeds) - India won by 279 runs

Test 3 (Birmingham) - Draw

Best Batting Performances

DB Vengsarkar - 360 Runs, 2 Hundreds, HS -126 (Lord's)

MW Gatting - 293 Runs, 1 Hundreds, HS -183 (Birmingham)

GA Gooch - 175 Runs, 1 Hundreds, HS -114 (Lord's)

SM Gavaskar - 175 Runs, 0 Hundreds, HS -54 (Birmingham)

Best Bowling Performances

C Sharma - 16 Wkts, 5WI-2, 10WM-1, BB -6/58 (Birmingham)

DR Pringle - 13 Wkts, 5WI-0, 10WM-0, BB -4/73 (Manchester)

RMH Binny - 12 Wkts, 5WI-1, 10WM-0, BB -5/40 (Leeds)

Maninder Singh - 12 Wkts, 5WI-0, 10WM-0, BB -4/26 (Leeds)

Tour of West Indies (2006) 4 Tests-India Won (1-0)

Captains - R Dravid, BC Lara

West Indies was past its prime in 2006, but they still had some of their best batsmen in Brian Lara, Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul, along with some good pace bowlers like Fidel Edwards and Pedro Collins. Beating West Indies in West Indies is not that easy. India was captained by Rahul Dravid and were playing without Sachin Tendulkar.

The first test at St. John's was significant for the double hundred that Wasim Jaffer scored in the second innings that helped India pile up a huge score to overcome the first innings deficit. Set a target of 392, West Indies came close to defeat losing 9 wickets for 298 before Edwards and Collins played out 44 balls combined to close out for a draw. In the second test, West Indies was made to follow on against India's massive 588 (with hundreds from Sehwag, Dravid and Kaif), but managed to pull out a draw with 7 wickets down in the second innings. In the third test, it was West Indies to score big, with hundreds from Ganga and Sarwan, ably supported by Chanderpaul and Samuels. India's response was led by Laxman's 100. India played out the fourth innings without much difficulty.

Into the fourth test, India was dismissed for 200, but bounced back to dismiss West Indies for 103, led by a 5/13 by Harbhajan Singh. The second outing for India wasn't great either, but the first innings lead propelled India's to set a target of 269 in the fourth innings for the Windies to chase. The lower middle order, especially Sarwan and Ramdin, fought gamely scoring fifties, but it was Anil Kumble who led the bowling in the second innings with 6/78, dismissing Windies for 219. India won by 49 runs and thus the series.

Lara had a relatively silent tour, scoring 211 runs at an average of 26.

Test 1 (St John's) - Draw

Test 2 (Gros Islet) - Draw

Test 3 (Basseterre) - Draw

Test 4 (Kingston) - India won by 49 runs

Best Batting Performances

R Dravid - 496 Runs, 1 Hundreds, HS -146 (Gros Islet)

W Jaffer - 372 Runs, 1 Hundreds, HS -212 (St John's)

V Sehwag - 357 Runs, 1 Hundreds, HS -180 (Gros Islet)

D Ganga - 344 Runs, 1 Hundreds, HS -135 (Basseterre)

Best Bowling Performances

A Kumble - 23 Wkts, 5WI-1, 10WM-0, BB -6/78 (Kingston)

CD Collymore - 15 Wkts, 5WI-1, 10WM-0, BB -5/48 (Kingston)

MM Patel - 14 Wkts, 5WI-0, 10WM-0, BB -3/51 (Gros Islet)

JE Taylor - 14 Wkts, 5WI-1, 10WM-0, BB -5/50 (Kingston)

Finally, we come to what prompted this article.

Tour of Australia (2018-19) 4 Tests-India Won (2-1)

Captains - V Kohli, TD Paine

Weakened by the bans on Steve Smith and David Warner, Australia was predicted to lose this series against India. India was the top ranked team, and had a potent bowling attack which had taken 20 wickets in almost all the test they had played in 2018. Australia too had a good bowling attack, consisting or Starc, Hazelwood, Cummins and Lyon, but it was assessed that the batting would let them down. And it did. The difference was Cheteshwar Pujara, who scored 3 hundreds in the series.

India won the first test at Adelaide, lost in Perth and won again in Melbourne. By the last test, Australia had little fight left in them, only a rain could save them from defeat.

Test 1 (Adelaide) - India won by 31 runs

Test 2 (Perth) - Australia won by 146 runs

Test 3 (Melbourne) - India won by 137 runs

Test 4 (Sydney) - Draw

Best Batting Performances

CA Pujara - 521 Runs, 3 Hundreds, HS -193 (Sydney)

RR Pant - 350 Runs, 1 Hundreds, HS -159 (Sydney)

V Kohli - 282 Runs, 1 Hundreds, HS -123 (Perth)

MS Harris - 260 Runs, 0 Hundreds, HS -79 (Sydney)

Best Bowling Performances

JJ Bumrah - 21 Wkts, 5WI-1, 10WM-0, BB -6/33 (Melbourne)

NM Lyon - 21 Wkts, 5WI-2, 10WM-0, BB -6/122 (Adelaide)

Mohammed Shami - 16 Wkts, 5WI-1, 10WM-0, BB -6/56 (Perth)

PJ Cummins - 14 Wkts, 5WI-1, 10WM-0, BB -6/27 (Melbourne)