Can Young Gill Achieve What Few Indian Captains Have in England

The Indian team has been dominant across all formats of the game, particularly in Test, where the mentality of the team has completely changed. Captains such as MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, and Rohit Sharma have helped the team to achieve new records in the Test format, except one. None of these captains has managed to win a series in England.

Till now in the history of Test cricket, India has managed to win a Test series in England three times, and the last series win came in 2007. MS Dhoni, who is one of the top captains of the Indian team, was also not able to tackle the English team on its soil.

Virat Kohli, who is the greatest captain of the Indian team in the Test format, with 40 wins in 68 matches, also didn’t secure a series win in England. Despite dominating in other overseas countries, including a series win in Australia, he was not able to tackle the tough challenge in England. Let’s take a look at the three captains who have defeated England in England.

Year	Captain	Series Result
1971	Ajit Wadekar	India Wins (1-0)
1986	Kapil Dev	India Wins (2-0)
2007	Rahul Dravid	India Wins (1-0)

These are the only captains to have helped the Indian team to defeat England in England. The first series win came in 1971 when the captain Ajit Wadekar led the Indian team to an impressive series win by 1-0. After having drawn the first two Test matches, India won the last match by 4 wickets to win the series.

Under Kapil Dev, India had its best performance in England, as they won the Test series by 2-0 in 1986. This showcased the Indian dominance on English soil, but the third series win came after 21 years, under Rahul Dravid, when India won the series 1-0. Let’s now take a detailed look at all the series wins by India in England.

India in England 1971

The first series win secured by India in England came back in 1971 when the Indian team established its name on English soil. Being led by Ajit Wadekar, the team played with stars like Sunil Gavaskar, Farokh Engineer, Ashok Mankad, and various others.

Match	Venue	Date	Result
1st Test	Lord’s	July 22–27, 1971	Match drawn
2nd Test	Manchester	August 5–10, 1971	Match drawn
3rd Test	The Oval	August 19–24, 1971	India won by 4 wickets

In the first match of the series, India played against England at Lord’s. The team was surely able to compete against them well in the first innings, as England started with 304, and India responded with 313 runs. After that, England finished the third innings at a score of 191, giving India a target of 183. The Indian team was able to finish with a score of 145/8 before the match was drawn.

The second match of the series was being played at Manchester when England dominated India. In the first innings, they posted a total of 386, and India responded with just 212 runs in the second innings. England posted 245 runs in the third innings before they declared, giving a target of 420. India scored just 65 runs for the loss of 3 wickets before the match ended in a draw.

The final Test came as the ultimate one for the Indian team, as they rattled down England’s line-up. Starting the match, England scored 355 runs in the first innings. In response, India got all out at the score of 284, giving England a massive lead ahead of the third innings. With the dominance of Bhagwath Chandrashekhar, India restricted England to just 101 runs.

Now, the target of 173 was easily achieved by the Indian team with 4 wickets to spare. Captain Ajit Wadekar was the top scorer in the chase, scoring 45 runs off 118 balls. Srinivas Venkataraghavan was the leading wicket-taker, with 13 wickets in 6 innings, and Ajit Wadekar was the highest run scorer with 204 runs in 6 innings.

India in England 1986

The next series win secured by India in England came under one of the most iconic Test captains, Kapil Dev, in 1986. What made this series win stand out from the others was the aggression by the Indian line-up, which helped the team to win the series by 2-0.

Match	Venue	Date	Result	POTM
1st Test	Lord’s	June 5–10, 1986	India won by 5 wickets	Kapil Dev
2nd Test	Leeds	June 19–23, 1986	India won by 279 runs	Dilip Vengsarkar
3rd Test	Birmingham	July 3–8, 1986	Match drawn	Mike Gatting

The first Test match was played at the Lord’s, when England batted first and scored 294 in the first innings. India did a perfect response, scoring 341 runs, and further restricted England to 180 in the third innings. The target of 134 was easily chased by the Indian team with 5 wickets remaining. Kapil Dev won the POTM award for taking 5 wickets and scoring 24 runs.

In the second Test match, the Indian team continued its dominance at Leeds. Batting first, India posted 272 runs in the first innings, which included a half-century by Dilip Vengsarkar. India restricted England to just 102 in the second innings, having a chance to set up a big target.

India went on to score 237 runs in the third innings, where Dilip Vengsarkar scored a century. England, having the target of 408, got all out at the score of just 128 runs, allowing India to also win the 2nd match by 279 runs. Dilip Vengsarkar received the POTM award in this match for scoring 61 and 102 runs respectively.

India could have also won the third match, but it resulted in a draw. By the end, the team had won the series by 2-0 against England in England, with Dilip Vengsarkar being the top scorer and Player of the Series with 360 runs. Chetan Sharma was the leading wicket-taker, grabbing 16 wickets in 4 innings.

Pataudi Trophy 2007

India’s next series win in England came 21 years after the previous one, as Rahul Dravid led the Indian team to win by 1-0. In the Pataudi Trophy 2007, when various greats of the current era combined their skills, India was able to beat England in a Test series for the third time in history.

Match	Venue	Date	Result	POTM
1st Test	Lord’s	July 19–23, 2007	Match drawn	Kevin Pietersen
2nd Test	Nottingham	July 27–31, 2007	India won by 7 wickets	Zaheer Khan
3rd Test	The Oval	August 9–13, 2007	Match drawn	Anil Kumble

India didn’t have a good start to the series, but fortunately, the first match resulted in a draw. Being played at the Lord’s, England scored 298 runs in the first innings and India ended up with just 201 in the second innings. In response, England posted 282 runs, giving India a target of 380. Kevin Pietersen won the POTM Award in this match for his century.

The second match played at Leeds turned out to be another historic win for India. England was restricted to just 198 in the first innings, where Zaheer Khan took 4 wickets. In return, India scored 481 runs, followed by an all-round batting dominance by the Indian line-up. England tried its best to give a big target to the Indian team.

But once again, Zaheer Khan came with different plans, as he took 5 wickets in the third innings of the game, restricting England to a total of 355 runs. Now, India had the target of 73 to chase, which was done with ease, with 7 wickets remaining. Zaheer Khan won the POTM award, taking 9 wickets in the match.

The third match was also a high-scoring one, where the Indian team dominated with both bat and ball. But the match ended in a draw, with Anil Kumble winning the POTM with 5 wickets and 110 runs. Zaheer Khan won the Player of the Series award for taking 18 wickets in 6 innings. Besides that, Dinesh Karthik was the team’s top run scorer with 263 runs in 6 innings.

Now the big question remains whether Shubman Gill and company get their name in this Elite list of Indian captains winning a Test series in England or not.