Main article: 

History of the Indian cricket team

Early history (1700s–1918)[edit]

See also:  History of cricket in India to 1918

The British brought cricket to India in the early 1700s, with the first cricket match played in 1721.
[17]
 In 1848, the Parsi community in Bombay formed the Oriental Cricket Club, the first cricket club to
be established by Indians. After slow beginnings, the Europeans eventually invited the Parsis to play
a match in 1877.[18] By 1912, the Parsis, Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims of Bombay played a quadrangular
tournament with the Europeans every year. [18] In the early 1900s, some Indians went on to play for
the England cricket team. Some of these, such as Ranjitsinhji and KS Duleepsinhji were greatly
appreciated by the British and their names went on to be used for the Ranji Trophy and Duleep
Trophy – two major first-class tournaments in India. In 1911, an Indian team went on their first
official tour of the British Isles, but only played English county teams and not the England cricket
team.[19]

Test match status (1918–1970)[edit]

Lala Amarnath batting during a match against Middlesex at Lord's, c. 1936

Sid Barnes traps Lala Amarnath lbw in the first official Test between Australia and India at the MCG
in 1948

See also:  History of cricket in India from 1918-19 to 1945,  History of cricket in India from 1945–46 to
1960, and  History of cricket in India from 1960–61 to 1970

India was invited to The Imperial Cricket Council in 1926, and made their debut as a Test playing
nation in England in 1932, led by CK Nayudu, who was considered the best Indian batsman at the
time.[20] The one-off Test match between the two sides was played at Lord's in London. The team was
not strong in their batting at this point and went on to lose by 158 runs. [21] India hosted its first Test
series in the year 1933. England was the visiting team that played 2 Tests in Bombay (now Mumbai)
and Calcutta (now Kolkata). The visitors won the series 2–0. The Indian team continued to improve
throughout the 1930s and '40s but did not achieve an international victory during this period. In the
early 1940s, India didn't play any Test cricket due to the Second World War. The team's first series as
an independent country was in late 1947 against Sir Donald Bradman's Invincibles (a name given to
the Australia national cricket team of that time). It was also the first Test series India played which
was not against England. Australia won the five-match series 4–0, with Bradman tormenting the
Indian bowling in his final Australian summer. [22] India subsequently played their first Test series at
home not against England, but against the West Indies in 1948. West Indies won the 5-Test series 1–
0.[23]

Queen Elizabeth II with members of the Indian team during the Indian tour of England in 1952.

India recorded their first Test victory, in their 24th match, against England at Madras in 1952.
[24]
 Later in the same year, they won their first Test series, which was against Pakistan.[25] They
continued their improvement throughout the early 1950s with a series win against New Zealand in
1956. However, they did not win again in the remainder of the decade and lost badly to strong
Australian and English sides. On 24 August 1959, India lost by an innings in the Test to complete the
only 5–0 whitewash ever inflicted by England. The next decade saw India's reputation develop as a
team with a strong record at home. They won their first Test series against England at home in
1961–62 and also won a home series against New Zealand. They managed to draw home series
against Pakistan and Australia and another series against England. In this same period, India also
won its first series outside the subcontinent, against New Zealand in 1967–68.

The key to India's bowling in the 1970s were the Indian spin quartet – Bishen Bedi, E.A.S.
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. Indian pitches have had
the tendency to support spin and the spin quartet exploited this to create collapses in opposing
batting line-ups. These players were responsible for the back-to-back series wins in 1971 in the West
Indies and in England, under the captaincy of Ajit Wadekar. Gavaskar scored 774 runs in the West
Indian series while Dilip Sardesai's 112 played a big part in their one Test win.

One-day cricket and ICC Cricket World Cup success (1970–1985)[edit]

See also:  History of cricket in India from 1970–71 to 1985

A graph showing India's Test match results against all Test match teams from 1932 to September
2006.

The advent of One Day International (ODI) cricket in 1971 created a new dimension in the cricket
world. However, India was not considered strong in ODIs at this point and batsmen such as the
captain Gavaskar were known for their defensive approach to batting. India began as a weak team in
ODIs and did not qualify for the second round in the first two editions of the Cricket World Cup.
[26]
 Gavaskar infamously blocked his way to 36 not out off 174 balls against England in the first World
Cup in 1975, India scored just 132 for 3 and lost by 202 runs.

In contrast, India fielded a strong team in Test matches and was particularly strong at home, where
their combination of stylish batsmen and beguiling spinners were at their best. India set a then Test
record in the third Test against the West Indies at Port-of-Spain in 1976, when they chased 403 to
win, thanks to 112 from Viswanath. This West Indian defeat is considered to be a watershed in the
history of their cricket because it led to captain Clive Lloyd dispensing with spin altogether and
relying entirely on a four-man pace attack instead. In November 1976, the team established another
record by scoring 524 for 9 declared against New Zealand at Kanpur without any individual batsman
scoring a century. There were six fifties, the highest being 70 by Mohinder Amarnath. This innings
was only the eighth instance in Test cricket where all eleven batsmen reached double figures.

During the 1980s, India developed a more attack-minded batting line-up with stroke makers such as
the wristy Mohammed Azharuddin, Dilip Vengsarkar and all-rounders Kapil Dev and Ravi Shastri.
India won the Cricket World Cup in 1983, defeating the favourites and the two-time defending
champions West Indies in the final at Lords, owing to a strong bowling performance. In spite of this,
the team performed poorly in the Test arena, including 28 consecutive Test matches without a
victory. In 1984, India won the Asia Cup and in 1985, won the World Championship of Cricket in
Australia. Apart from this, India remained a weak team outside the Indian subcontinent. India's Test
series victory in 1986 against England remained the last Test series win by India outside
the subcontinent for the next 19 years. The 1980s saw Gavaskar and Kapil Dev (India's best all-
rounder to date) at the pinnacle of their careers. Gavaskar made a Test record 34 centuries as he
became the first man to reach the 10,000 run mark. Kapil Dev later became the highest wicket-taker
in Test cricket with 434 wickets. The period was also marked by an unstable leadership, with
Gavaskar and Kapil exchanging the captaincy several times.

Late 20th century (1985–2000)[edit]

See also:  History of cricket in India from 1985–86 to 2000

With 619 wickets, Anil Kumble is the world's fourth highest wicket-taker in Tests and India's highest
Test and ODI wicket-taker. [27]
The addition of Sachin Tendulkar and Anil Kumble to the national side in 1989 and 1990 further
improved the team. The following year, Javagal Srinath, India's fastest bowler since Amar
Singh made his debut. Despite this, during the 1990s, India did not win any of its 33 Tests outside
the subcontinent while it won 17 out of its 30 Tests at home. After being eliminated by neighbours
Sri Lanka on home soil at the 1996 Cricket World Cup semifinal, the team underwent a year of
change as Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid, later to become captains of the team, made their debut
in the same Test at Lord's. Tendulkar replaced Azharuddin as captain in late 1996, but after a
personal and team form slump, Tendulkar relinquished the captaincy and Azharuddin was reinstated
at the beginning of 1998. With the captaincy burden removed, Tendulkar was the world's leading
run-scorer in both Tests and ODIs, as India enjoyed a home Test series win over Australia, the best-
ranked team in the world.

After failing to reach the semifinals at the 1999 Cricket World Cup, Tendulkar was again made
captain, and had another poor run, losing 3–0 on a tour of Australia and then 2–0 at home to South
Africa. Tendulkar resigned, vowing never to captain the team again. Ganguly was appointed the new
captain and the team was further damaged in 2000 when former captain Azharuddin and fellow
batsman Ajay Jadeja were implicated in a match-fixing scandal and given life and five years bans
respectively. This period was described by the BBC as "the Indian cricket's worst hour". However, the
new core – Tendulkar, Dravid, Kumble and Ganguly – swore not to let this happen to them again,
and lead Indian cricket out of the dark times. And the first three put aside personal ambitions to let
Ganguly lead them into a new era.[28]