Is This India's Greatest Test Series Victory Overseas?

[vcs]

It would have been better for us had more centuries been scored though. It wasn't like we were ever in a position to do declaration batting.

 

[Chrish]

I don't know if wickets have become more bowling friendly or overall bowling quality has gone up a notch higher, or is it t20 influence, but overall no. of centuries per inning must have declined in past few years. I mean entire series with just one or two centuries aren't rare occurrences these days.

 

[Bijed]

I don't know if wickets have become more bowling friendly or overall bowling quality has gone up a notch higher, or is it t20 influence, but overall no. of centuries per inning must have declined in past few years. I mean entire series with just one or two centuries aren't rare occurrences these days.

Since Root's debut imo

 

[stephen]

I mean it's even hard to get worked up and call for Langer/Paine's blood over this because the fairy tale is such an overwhelming narrative in this series.

 

[honestbharani]

I mean it's even hard to get worked up and call for Langer/Paine's blood over this because the fairy tale is such an overwhelming narrative in this series.

Langer is ensuring it stays so too. I can see why Aussie fans think he is a brown noser tbh.

Really do think it is time for you guys to make Cummins the test captain.

 

[GoodAreasShane]

Really do think it is time for you guys to make Cummins the test captain.

I don't, certainly not until he has experience leading at a lower level beforehand

 

[cnerd123]

So now that the buzz is dying down a bit, I think we should consider some other major overseas victories for India

Their was their first ever overseas Test win, and overseas Series win, came against the New Zealanders in 1967/68. They won the 4 match series 3-1 under the captaincy of the legendary Tiger Pataudi.

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A good article on the first win can be found on The Cricket Monthly:

A win by spin in Dunedin

India's first Test win abroad came in New Zealand 41 years ago. We look back at the Dunedin Test where Prasanna and Wadekar led the way to a famous triumph

www.thecricketmonthly.com

This kicked started a bit of a golden run for India, for they won their next two overseas assignments as well! There was the famous win over the West Indies in 1970/71, where Ajit Wadekar's men won an attritional 5-match series 1-0. This was Sunny's breakthrough series, as he topped the run scoring charts with 774 runs, and was also arguably Dilip Sardesai's greatest performance for India, as he was 2nd in the list with 642 runs. Venkat nabbed 22 wickets in a series dominated by spin - Syed Abid Ali was the leading fast bowler from either side, with 11 wickets across the 5 games.

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Later that same year this Indian side made even more history, by winning 1-0 in a 3 match series in England. 1971 was truly a great year for Indian test cricket. It was the spinners who lead the way for India again, with Venkat, Chandra and Bedi playing all 3 Tests for 37 wickets. No English bowler managed more than 8.

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India did not win another overseas tour until 1986, tho they did pick up Test wins in New Zealand, West Indies and Australia. However India did not win an overseas Test from Feb 1981 till June 1986, when skipper Kapil Dev put in a MOTM effort to topple Gower's England side at Lords by 5 wickets. There was a century for Vengsarkar and a 5-fer for Chetan Sharma too, and India would go on to win the series 2-0.

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Through the 90s and early 00s India picked up overseas wins against Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and the West Indies, but the highlights were winning in Pakistan in 2004 (for the first time in 6 attempts dating back to 1978. 7 attempts if you include the one-off Asian Test Championship match) and in England in 2007 (the first time since 1986). The next major overseas series win was beating NZ in 2009, and finally beating Australia in 2018.

So looking back through history really quickly, this series ranks up there with the 1971 wins in Eng/WI and the 2018 BG trophy win. It's arguably more of a fairytale than any other overseas series wins tho, and the gap between the Indian and Australian sides on paper in the Gabba test is perhap the biggest gap between any winning Indian side and their rival.

 

[vcs]

We didn't even win a Test outside Asia between '87 and '02 or something like that (not counting Zimbabwe I think). Dark times.

 

[Kirkut]

We didn't even win a Test outside Asia between '87 and '02 or something like that (not counting Zimbabwe I think). Dark times.

Very good teams then. Barring England, all teams were hard to beat, including Zimbabwe which was competitive as well.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Pakistan 2004 was a great win, was a strong Pakistan team too who were coming into the series with victories vs SA and NZ.

 

[vcs]

Very good teams then. Barring England, all teams were hard to beat, including Zimbabwe which was competitive as well.

Nah we were garbage. WI post '95, England, NZ etc. were nothing particularly special.

Saying that we played fewer overseas series as well in that period, unsurprisingly boards were reluctant to invite us given how dire and boring we were.

 

[srbhkshk]

Nah we were garbage. WI post '95, England, NZ etc. were nothing particularly special.

Saying that we played fewer overseas series as well in that period, unsurprisingly boards were reluctant to invite us given how dire and boring we were.

We won zero tests outside India in the 90s.

 

[Kirkut]

Nah we were garbage. WI post '95, England, NZ etc. were nothing particularly special.

Saying that we played fewer overseas series as well in that period, unsurprisingly boards were reluctant to invite us given how dire and boring we were.

NZ and WI at home were hard to beat, WI had Ambrose/Walsh, Bishop and Franklyn Rose till 2000. Back then I guess there weren't any A team tours to foreign countries to get a feel of international conditions, so batsmen had virtually no experience against bounce or lateral movement.

 

[vcs]

We won zero tests outside India in the 90s.

We once won in Sri Lanka in around 94 or so

 

[srbhkshk]

We once won in Sri Lanka in around 94 or so

Huh, I must have looked at the SENA stats.

 

[Daemon]

So we all seem to be in agreement that this was Indias greatest ever test series victory overseas. But across all formats it’s still the Nidahas trophy isn’t it?

 

[Slifer]

Nah we were garbage. WI post '95, England, NZ etc. were nothing particularly special.

Saying that we played fewer overseas series as well in that period, unsurprisingly boards were reluctant to invite us given how dire and boring we were.

Only Australia in '95 beat the WI at home in the 90s, so as ordinary as WI were, they were still tough to beat at home. Actually, India had a golden opportunity i think in '96 or '97 but were bundled out for 80 odd chasing 120 or so.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Only Australia in '95 beat the WI at home in the 90s, so as ordinary as WI were, they were still tough to beat at home. Actually, India had a golden opportunity i think in '96 or '97 but were bundled out for 80 odd chasing 120 or so.

Ugh that was woeful. Sachin and Dravid had batted brilliantly in the first innings to get india into that position. But probably should have known that any pitch where Kuruvilla can take 5fer isnt going to be easy in the 4th innings.

 

[sunilz]

So we all seem to be in agreement that this was Indias greatest ever test series victory overseas. But across all formats it’s still the Nidahas trophy isn’t it?

There are 2 kinds of Cricketers, those who played in Nidahas trophy and those who didn't.

 

[h_hurricane]

If we had achieved a series victory in WI series in 1997, it would have been our greatest test series victory overseas ever, at least until this point. That team had awesome reputation, even though they were declining from 1995 or so. Such a shame that it was this close and yet, so far.

Franklyn Ross !!!!!