How India became a test cricket powerhouse

More than 90 years after India's first Test match at Lord's in 1932, Rohit Sharma's team has created history. With a win over Bangladesh in Chennai last month, India now has more Test wins than losses, with 179 wins and 178 defeats across 580 Tests. Cricket writer Suresh Menon explores India's remarkable transformation into a test cricket powerhouse.

In every area of ​​human endeavor, there are moments when circumstances and people align, bringing about change.

In popular music, this happened with the Beatles, where four guys emerged from the same place at the same time and created a new sound.

In sports, such changes are usually led by one player who has a group of players around him who are almost as good. It happened in football with Pele when Brazil won three out of four World Cups with him in the squad between 1958 and 1970.

With the arrival of a baby-faced Sachin Tendulkar, the fortunes of Indian cricket changed. His supporting cast was equally important to the transformation: Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan, Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, VVS Laxman, Sourav Ganguly, Harbhajan Singh and MS Dhoni. Many would find a place in a team of all-time Indian greats.

Before Tendulkar's debut in November 1989, India had won just 43 Tests and lost more than twice as many out of 257 matches played. The rest were draws.

In the Tendulkar era, India registered 78 wins against 60 losses out of 217 matches played.

But it was a period when the number of draws – 79 – was still significant. Only seven victories had been achieved in the “SANE” countries: South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and England. Draws in these countries were still seen as a victory of sorts, the mentality with which India entered international cricket.

Changes were taking place at home. Led by Ganguly and continued by Dhoni, India discovered players outside the traditional centres. If you were good enough, it didn't matter where you came from; you would get your chance. This is despite the fact that the cricket board itself and the various local bodies were often steeped in politics.

Tendulkar retired in 2013 and since then India have won 58 while losing just 29 of the 106 Tests played. Significantly, there have been only 19 draws.

India won back-to-back series in Australia as they matched their rivals in aggression and confidence. This was now no longer just a cricketing change, it was a psychological change.

Virat Kohli occasionally overstepped the mark as skipper, but he was passionate about Test cricket and passionate about winning – an attitude that seeped into the team.

India planned to chase 364 in his first Test as captain in Adelaide in 2014 but almost succeeded, losing the match by just 48 runs.

It was a turning point. A new approach emerged. Kohli, who led India in most Tests, was allergic to draws at the age of 68. It meant that India played positive cricket at all times. Kohli managed just 16% of his Tests, the lowest among the top six captains in history. Even Clive Lloyd had a 35% draw.

Kohli had a talented group around him Cheteswar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishant Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, KL Rahul. Once again, players were discovered outside the traditional centers.

Another psychological change was that India no longer worshiped at the altar of orthodoxy. Effectiveness was more important than style. Jasprit Bumrah, who quickly entered international cricket and is possibly India's greatest fast bowler, may not have made it in previous generations. He is unorthodox; coaches would have recommended a different profession.

The cricket board too finally started to respond to regular defeats abroad. India lost all the Tests to Australia and England in a span of six months in 2011-12.

The golden generation retired. Much was made of the ineffectiveness of domestic cricket. The board decided that pitches should help fast bowlers. It instructed managers to retain grass of 3mm to 8mm on the fields. The results over time were twofold. India discovered a group of talented fast bowlers and at the same time improved their batsmen's ability to bowl fast.

You needed fast bowlers to win consistently abroad. Indian cricket's low points can usually be traced to their weakness against fast bowling. At Manchester in 1952 they were dismissed twice in the same day for 58 and 82 when Fred Trueman and Alec Bedser ran through the side.

In the “Summer of 42” at Lords in 1974 they folded for 42 thanks to the dominant bowling of Geoff Arnold and Chris Old. It led to one of the cruelest cartoons in sports, in which a woman said to her husband coming out of the toilet, “You should have gone home.” Now you have missed the entire Indian innings.

However, India's dismissal for 36 in Adelaide in 2020 neither cartoons nor panic causes. That was accepted as a bizarre innings in which every good ball took a wicket and there were hardly any bad balls. But it took a lot of confidence to pass it off as one of those things that took India to wins in the next two Tests, and with it the series.

There was a phase, 2002-2004, when India won Tests in Port of Spain, Leeds, Adelaide, Multan and Rawalpindi. But only in Pakistan did they win the series. Veteran writer David Frith thought that India then had the best Top 6 batting line-up in the history of the game. There was both weight and elegance, a rare combination.

But that team didn't live up to its potential. This is one of the ironies of Indian cricket: that their most celebrated team did not dominate as they should.

What the current team has is heart. Those 36 in Adelaide and 78 in Leeds serve to highlight the temperament of players who can let bygones be bygones and remember only the good times. It's a rare quality in an individual, and even rarer in a team.

In the past, Indian teams always had a few excellent individuals on whom everything rested. With Sunil Gavaskar sacked, half the team was gone. If the big spinners were collared, there was no one to turn to until Kapil Dev came along, and if he had a bad day, that was that.

In the 1960s, India won only one series abroad, in New Zealand. That helped consolidate India's greatest strength: spin bowling. That most romanticized generation led by a Nawab, Mansur Ali Khan of Pataudi, with his essentially amateurish mind, was necessary. Equally necessary was Tendulkar's, when India performed with greater consistency.

All this was before the Kohli-led group of professionals could come forward. When India were ranked No. 1 for the first time in 2009, they had not yet won a series in Australia, South Africa or Sri Lanka. Now only South Africa remains.

Indian cricket has moved on and now we look at the endgame of recent stars: Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja. Rishabh Pant, Bumrah, Shubhman Gill, Yashaswi Jaiswal and a host of emerging fast bowlers have already indicated that they are ready to take over. India will play five Tests in Australia from November.

Suddenly the pressure is on Australia. The Tendulkar generation laid a solid foundation and the Kohli-Sharma generation built on it. At the end of the Chennai Test against Bangladesh, India are coming off losses, 179-178 in 580 Tests. Statistical proof of a new India, if that were necessary.