Home > Sports > Cricket in India > Post Independence History of Indian Cricket
Post Independence History of Indian Cricket
Post independence history of Indian cricket unveils the achievements and failures of Indian cricket.

Share this Article:

Post Independence History of Indian CricketThe first ever Test match victory by Indian team came against England at Chennai in the year 1952. First ever series win by India was in the year 1952 against Pakistan. In the year 1954, India drew a 5 match test series against Pakistan 0-0. The pillar of batting strength had come from Polly Umrigar and Vijay Manjrekar. And prime fast bowler of the team in the form of Subhash Gupte also contributed towards the success by chipping in with 21 wickets in the series.

India played its first ever series against New Zealand in the year 1956, and ended up winning the series with a 2-0 margin. MH Mankad was fantastic with his batting display and averaged 105.2 in the series with a score of 526 runs. Once again the responsibility of the bowling department was held by SM Gupte, and he took 34 crucial wickets. The later part of 1950s did not yield good result as the initial part did: India lost a 3-Test series to Australia (2-0), lost a 5-Test series against the West Indies (3-0), took a 5-0 thrashing at the hands of England, and lost a second series against a strong Australian side (2-1).

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 an exciting final match at Lord`s.

Post Independence History of Indian Cricket India won the World Championship of Cricket in Australia in the year 1985. And the following year India won a test series in England, which remained, for nearly 19 years, the last Test series win outside subcontinent (until team led by Dravid won a series in 2007).

Later of course Mohinder Amarnath and "Mr. Dependable" Dilip Vengsarkar emerged into the scene; the latter was the undisputed No. 1 batsman in 1986-87. Sunil Gavaskar became the first ever batsman to accumulate 10,000 runs in Test cricket, and went on to register a record 34 centuries, surpassed by Sachin Tendulkar in the recent times. Kapil Dev, an authentic all-rounder, 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 by Courtney Walsh, Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan and has also been surpassed by fellow Indian Anil Kumble.

The surfacing of Sachin Tendulkar and Anil Kumble in 1989 and 1990 respectively was an indication towards beginning of an era in Indian cricket that was predominantly overshadowed by individual stardom and charisma. Arguably, Sachin Tendulkar became the best batsman in the world, along with Brian Lara of the West Indies. In 1998 Sir Donald Bradman himself remarked that batting style of Sachin Tendulkar was similar to his. Mohammed Azharuddin, who captained India for most of the 90s, proved a captain whose main strength, if not his motivational skills, was an ability to stay cool under pressure. The career of wrist-player from Hyderabad ended after 99 Tests when he was banned for life after being implicated in the match-fixing scandal. Under his captaincy, the Indian team became virtually unbeatable at home, with big wins coming against teams like England, New Zealand and Australia, but their performances abroad left a lot to be desired.

Towards the end of 1999, the Indian team was in transitional phase. The winter`s of 1999 was marked by a disastrous Aussie tour which exposed the Indian team`s weaknesses when playing abroad, marked with a loss of form of most of the batsmen, except Tendulkar and the newly-emerged VVS Laxman. After Sachin Tendulkar quit captaincy and Azharuddin was banned for match-fixing, Saurav Ganguly took over as captain, and the New Zealander John Wright became coach.

Post Independence History of Indian Cricket Ganguly`s captaincy started a new beginning for Indian cricket. It all began with famous series win against Australia in 2001. Steve Waugh`s aggressive Aussie team was defeated 2-1 in the series after they took the lead 1-0 in the series at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. The remarkable turnaround came with the Kolkata test match at Eden Gardens, when VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid and Harbhajan Singh`s performance took India to victory after they had followed on. This series marked a turning point in the Indian team`s destiny, and provided the team with the boost up they dearly needed. Henceforth, the team performed immensely both at home and aboard, with Test victories coming in Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, West Indies, England, Australia, and a famous series victory against arch-rivals Pakistan in 2004, Indian team was soaring high.

Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Virender Sehwag were picked to participate in "Super Test" against Australia. They were selected in the ICC World XI side in the year 2005. The later part of 2005 saw Indian cricket shrouded with controversies. The Saurav Ganguly and Greg Chappel (who succeeded as Indian coach after John Wright) spat came to the fore and it was a nasty phase in Indian cricket. Eventually, Ganguly lost his captaincy and place in the side, and Rahul Dravid took over as the captain of the team. Dravid captained the side for two years. There are some high points and low points during his tenure as captain, with the latter dominating over the former. The win over West Indies to mark a series win in the Caribbean after 35 years, the 2007 test series win in England after 26 years, were some of the record Indian team achieved under Rahul`s leadership.

While Tendulkar, Ganguly, Sehwag and Dravid formed the mainstay of the Indian batting during late 1990 and early 2000, the coming of age of players like Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif, and also the emergence of stars like Suresh Raina and Mahendra Singh Dhoni had boosted the Indian team by a huge margin.

In the bowling department, likes of Irfan Pathan, Santhakumaran Sreesanth, R.P. Singh, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel came into the fray.


Share this Article:

Related Articles

More Articles in Cricket in India


Sunil Gavaskar Cricketer
Sunil Gavaskar is one of the greatest batsmen of Indian cricket; he has created and broken a number of records in the entire run of his career.
Sachin Tendulkar Indian Cricketer
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, popularly known as Master Blaster of Indian cricket is the most complete batsman and the most worshipped cricketer in the world. His doctrine of batting is purely based on balancing and precision of stroke making. He was conferred with the Bharat Ratna, India`s highest civilian award on February, 2014.
Tamil Nadu Cricket Players
Tamil Nadu cricket players have shown their talents from the early era of Indian cricket and even now also, the cricket players of Tamil Nadu have contributed 65 percent in Indian cricket.
Haryana Cricket Players
Haryana Cricket Players represent themselves as a strongest domestic cricket team in India. They established themselves in Ranji Trophy, Vijay Hazare Trophy, Indian National Cricket team and many more.
Madhya Pradesh Cricket Players
Madhya Pradesh Cricket Players were participated in the Ranji Trophy up to 1954-55. Then it was resolved and substituted by a Madhya Bharat team. After two years it turned to be a part of the Madhya Pradesh Cricket team.
Bengal Cricket Players
Bengal cricket players have over the years been a part of successful campaigns, as their team has done exceedingly well in the domestic circuits. They enrolled themselves from the different districts of West Bengal.
Karnataka Cricket Players
Karnataka Cricket players are a part of the strongest teams in the "Ranji Trophy" Elite Group. Not only, they are the strongest team in Indian regional level, most of the players from Karnataka are enlisted in Indian Premier League.
Twenty-20 World Cup Cricket Tournament
Twenty-20 World Cup Cricket Tournament was really a very exciting tournament and the people of the world have enjoyed it a lot. Twenty-20 World Cup Cricket Tournament has generally been held every two years.
Challenger Trophy Cricket
Challenger Trophy Cricket is a limited-over, day and night one day tournament in the domestic Indian cricket, which provides opportunities to new players.
Uttar Pradesh Cricket Players
Uttar Pradesh cricket players possess immense skill and talents and have contributed immensely towards the win of their state team. Some of the players from Uttar Pradesh are also enlisted in Indian Premier League and the Indian National Cricket Team.
Assam Cricket Players
Assam cricket players possess immense skill and talents and have contributed immensely towards the win of their state team. These cricket players of North eastern part play well every year in Ranji Trophy and other Indian leagues.
Maharashtra Cricket Players
Maharashtra cricket players are the most successful players in international arena. They play in the regional teams and Indian Premier League respectively.
Delhi Cricket Players
Delhi cricket players possess immense skill and talents and have contributed immensely towards the win of their state team. Some of the players of Delhi Cricket team in now in Delhi Daredevils.
Andhra Pradesh Cricket Players
Andhra Pradesh cricket players have over the years been a part of successful campaigns, as their team has done exceedingly well in the domestic circuits.
Rajasthan Cricket Players
Rajasthan cricket players are counted among the best players of the country. They have contributed immensely towards the success of the Rajasthan National Team and Indian National Cricket Team.
Gujarat Cricket Players
Gujarat Cricket Players represent the state team of Gujarat, Baroda Cricket Team and Saurashtra Cricket Team. Now, most of the players of Gujarat Cricket players are enlisted in Gujarat Lions in Indian Premier League.
Punjab Cricket Players
Punjab Cricket Players are the strongest and skilled players in the Ranji Trophy. Some of the Punjab cricketers are played well in Indian National Cricket Team and Kings XI Punjab.
Odisha Cricket Players
Odisha Cricket Players have made a distinguished mark in cricket at the national level and international level.
Kerala Cricket Players
Kerala cricket players are playing under the flagship of Kerala Cricket Association.
Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Players
Jammu and Kashmir Cricket players are improving themselves with every passing year in the midst of social and political tension.
Himachal Pradesh Cricket Players
Himachal Pradesh cricket players are now getting the chance in Indian national and international cricket team, as the regional cricket is getting stress.
Baroda Cricket Association
Baroda Cricket Association is the governing body of all cricket related activities of Baroda, Gujarat and the Baroda Cricket team.
Mumbai Cricket Association
Mumbai Cricket Association is one of the oldest members of the Board of Control for Cricket in India. The association comes under west zone.
Hyderabad Cricket Association
Hyderabad Cricket Association is the governing body of cricket in Hyderabad and other districts of Andhra Pradesh.
Karnataka State Cricket Association
Karnataka State Cricket Association was formerly known as Mysore Cricket Association. This association was founded in the year 1933 and is affiliated to BCCI.
Cricket Association of Bengal
Cricket Association of Bengal is the governing head of cricket in West Bengal. It arranges and hosts many types of tournaments in the state of West Bengal.
Goa Cricket Association
Goa Cricket Association is a cricket administrative body that takes care of the cricketing activities in the state of Goa.
Calcutta Cricket & Football Club
Calcutta Cricket and Football Club is a heritage spot of sports in Kolkata- City of Joy. This spot is the early sports destination of British Kolkata.
Celebrity Cricket League
Celebrity Cricket League or CCL is inspired by the great success of the Indian Premier League and involves a group of eight teams of Indian movie actors. Till date, there have been four different seasons of CCL, and its founder is Vishnu Vardhan Induri.
Indian Premier League
Indian Premier League or IPL commenced on 18th April, 2008 in Bengaluru. Mr. Lalit Modi was the primary force behind the commencement of such a tournament. IPL 10 or IPL 2017 started on 5th April 2017 and this league is scheduled to finish on 21st May 2017, with Hyderabad hosting the opening match and the final.
Teams in Indian Premier League
Teams in Indian Premier League are classified into eight teams. These teams are playing in IPL seasons with enthusiasm and fervor.