Brief flashback of past history of England's test tours of India

 

England will soon start another test series in India . Under Ben Stokes' captaincy England will play 5 tests as a part of the World Test Championship 2023-25 cycle . India will be led by Rohit Sharma and the fans of both countries will await to see how bazball works on Indian pitches .

As we await for the new series to begin from 25 January , we go down memory lane to briefly look at the past history of England test tours of India .

1933-34 :  The very first England tour of India happened in 1933-34. 3 tests were played . England won by 9 wickets at Mumbai and by 202 runs at Chennai while the Kolkata tests was a draw.  Lala Amarnath became the first ever Indian to score a hundred . He hit 118 at Mumbai . Amarnath (203) and Cyril  Walters (284)  were top run scores whereas Amar Singh (13) and  Headley Verity(24) were chief wicket takers . England won series 2-0

1951-52 :  England next came to India in 1951-52 to play 5 tests . Series ended 1-1with England winning 4th test at Kanpur by 8 wkts and India winning the 5th test at Chennai by 1 innings and 8 runs.  Pankaj Roy (387 runs ) and Alan Watkins (450 runs) were highest scorers and Vinoo Mankad (34 ) and Tattersall (21) were highest wicket takers

1962-63 : Ted Dexter led England to India on a 5 test tour . After the 1st 3 tests were drawn , India beat England at Kolkata by 187 runs and followed up with a 5th test win at Chennai by 128 runs to win the series 2-0  . Vijay Manjrekar (556 runs ) and Ken Barrington (594 runs) were the leading run scorers for India & England respectively while Salim Durrani (23) and Tony Lock (22) were the highest wicket takers for respective teams . This test series was the very first time that India beat England at home or away. 

1963-64 :  England visited India under JK Smith .India was led by MAK Pataudi . All the 5 tests were drawn with some high scoring tests & many centuries . Budhi Kunderan (525 runs ) ,  Brian Bolus (391runs) , Salim Durrani  (11 wkts) &  Fred Titmus (27 wkts ) were the highest run & wicket takers for the respective teams in this series .

1972-73 :  After some years since last visit , England toured India under Tony Lewis . Ajit Wadekar led India . India won the 5 test series by 2-1 mainly due to the spin duo Chandrasekhar and Bishen Bedi . Chandra took 35 wickets and Bedi took 25 wickets . England started the series well with a 6 wicket win in Delhi but India promptly hit back with 28 run win at Kolkata and a 4 wkts win at Chennai . The last 2 tests were drawn . Farokh Engineer (415 runout ) & Tony Greig (382 runs ) were the highest scorers for the respective teams . Arnold (17 wickets) and Chandra (35 wickets ) were the chief wicket takers for their sides.

1976-77 : England after winning the Ashes at home visited India under Tony Grieg in 1977 . They dominated India and won all the first 3 tests at Delhi ( innings and 25 runs ) , Kolkata ( 10 wickets ) & Chennai ( 200 runs ).  India got a consolation win at Bangalore (140 runs) and the 5th test was drawn with India in a winning position. England won the series 3-1 . Dennis Ammis (417) scored highest runs in the series for England while Gavaskar (394) led the list for India . It was a bowlers series with England's Underwood (26 wkts) , John Lever (22 wkts) & Willis (20 wkts) dominating Indian batting while Bedi (25 wkts) and Chandra (19 wkts) bowled well for India .

1981-82 : After a sensational Ashes series win at home England cane to India with great expectations under Keith Flecher's captaincy . India was led by Sunil Gavaskar.  It proved to be a boring 6 test series with India winning the first test by 138 runs after getting England bowled out for 102 in 4th innings with Kapil Dev and Madan Lal taking 5 wickets each . However the next 5 tests were high scoring draws on dull pitches . Kapil Dev with his outstanding all round show (318 runs , 22 wickets ) was the player of the series as India won the series 1-0 . Gavaskar (500 runs) and Gooch (487 runs) ended as highest run getters for India and England respectively while Kapil Dev (22 wkts) , Doshi (22 wkts ) and Botham (17 wkts ) ended as top wicket takers.  

1984-85 : After getting thrashed 5-0 by West Indies at home, England under David Gower came as rank underdogs to India in 1984 . The hosts under Gavaskar won the first test by 8 wickets at Mumbai with Sivaramkrishnan taking 12 wickets in the match . A big Indian win in the series was anticipated but England bounced back to win the 2nd test at Delhi by 8 wickets due to some careless Indian batting . After a drawn 3rd test at Kolkata , India helped England to win the 4th test at Madras by 9 wickets due to another careless  batting performance . 5th test at Kanpur was drawn and England won the series unexpectedly by 2-1 . For England Mike Gatting (575 runs) was the most successful batter while Foster (14 wickets) was the highest wicket taker . For India Mohammed Azharuddin with 439 runs and 3 centuries on his debut series was the highest run getter followed by Mohinder Amarnath (407 runs ) and Sivaramakrishnan with 23 wickets was the highest wicket taker .

1992-93 :  After a 8 year gap England visited India under Graham Gooch for a 3 test series and got thrashed 3-0 . They lost the 1st test at Kolkata by 8 wickets , lost the 2nd test at Chennai by an innings and 22 runs and lost the 3rd test at Mumbai by an innings and 15 runs . For England, Greame Hick (315) scored the most runs and took the most wickets (8) . For India Vinod Kambli (317) scored most runs while Anil Kumble with 21 wickets got the player of the series .

2001-02 :  After a 9 year gap , England toured India for a 3 test series under Nasser Hussain . They faced India led by Sourav Ganguly in a 3 test series and lost the first test at Mohali by 10 wickets . The next 2 tests at Ahmedabad and Bangalore were drawn . India won the series 1-0 , Tendulkar (307) and Treschothik (240) were the top run getters for their teams while Kumble (19) and Hoggard (9) were the top wicket takers .

2005-06 :  Andew Flintoff led the England team on a 3 test series in India . Rahul Dravid was leading the Indian team . The first test at Nagpur was drawn as Alistair Cook making his debut scored 104 . India won the 2nd test at Mohali by 9 wickets but England bounced back winning the 3rd test at Mumbai by 212 runs to level the series 1-1 . Dravid (309) and Collingwood (272) were the top run getters for their teams while Kumble (16) and Hoggard (13) were the top wicket takers .

2008-09 :  England toured India in 2008-09 for a 2 test series under Kevin Pietersen and faced India led by MS Dhoni . The first test was played at Chennai which India won by 6 wickets chasing down 387 in 4th innings with Sehwag (87) leading the way with a blistering start and Tendulkar (100) & Yuvraj (85) finishing the game . The 2nd test at Mohali was drawn .  Gambhir  (361) and Strauss (252) were the top run getters for their teams while Zaheer Khan (8) jointly with Harbhajan (8) and Greame Swann  (8) were the top wicket takers  .

2012-13 :  After winning the Ashes in Australia in previous winter , England under Alistair Cook toured India for 4 test series . They lost the first test by 9 wickets after a poor first innings score . However they bounced back against Dhoni's India in the second test at Mumbai through their spinners as Panesar took 11 wickets and England won by 10 wickets . The tourists carried the momentum in Kolkata test winning by 7 wickets . England finally won the series 2-1  after a drawn Nagpur test . For England, skipper Alistair Cook with the highest  562 runs was outstanding while Swann took the maximum 20 wickets . For India Pujara scoree the highest 438 runs and Pragyan Ojha took the highest 20 wickets .

2016-17  :  Alistair Cook led England for the second time in a test tour of India and this time he was facing Virat Kohli led India in 5 tests . After drawing the first test at Rajkot , England stumbled to 4 successive defeats in the next four tests to lose the series 4-0 . In the second test at Vizag India won  by 246 runs as Kohli scored 167 & 81 . In the 3rd test at Mohali India won by 8 wickets followed by an innings and 36 runs at Mumbai in the  4th test with Kohli scoring 235 and Ashwin taking 12 wickets . In the 5th test at Chennai England lost again by an innings and 75 runs as Karun Nair scored a mammoth 303 * and KL Rahul hit 199.   In the series  Virat Kohli amassed a staggering 655 runs to be the highest scorer in that series with Ashwin took 28 wickets to be the highest Indian wicket taker . For England Joe Root ( 491 runs) and Adil Rashid (23 wickets ) were the highest contributors. 

2020-21 :  The last England tour of India happened under Joe Root against Virat Kohli 's India.  England buoyed by Root's terrific 218 beat India in the 1st test at Chennai by 227 runs.  However India bounced back on tough spinning pitches beating England in the 2nd test at Chennai by 317 runs after Rohit (161) and Ashwin (106)  scored centuries.  In the pink ball 3rd test at Ahmedabad in a low scoring match India won by 10 wickets with Axar Patel taking 11 wickets . In the 4th and final test at Ahmedabad  India won by 10 wickets to win the series  3-1 .  For India , Rohit Sharma (345 runs ) was the highest scorer and player of the series Ashwin (32) highest wicket taker . For England Root  scored the highest  368 runs while Jack Leach took the highest  18 wickets . 

Now Ben Stokes has led the England team to Indian shores and the whole of India is waiting to see how Indian spin trio measure up to the bazball cricket of England.