India

England    Australia

    The Indian cricket team began its first official cricket tour in the year 1911. They played English Cricket County but were unable to register any win. However, they came back rich in experience. In 1926 Indian Cricket team joined Imperial Cricket Council, which is now known as the International Cricket Council (ICC). In 1932, India was given the status of test playing nation. Now India became sixth test playing nation of the world under the leadership of famous CK Nayudu. Though he was an able captain but Indian team could not win any match from 1932 to 1950 however it continued to improve.

Indian Cricket Players

Full name Mahendra Singh Dhoni

Born July 7, 1981, Ranchi

Current age 29 years 138 days

Major teams India, Asia XI, Bihar, Chennai Super Kings,Jharkhand

Also known as Mahi

Batting style Right-hand bat

Bowling style Right-arm medium

Fielding position Wicketkeepe

 India tasted its first ever test win in 1952 when it defeated England in  Madras This triumph continued with the test series win over Pakistan in 1952 and test victory over New Zealand in 1956 under the leadership of Lala Amarnath and Polly Umrigar respectively. India could not continue its triumph for long and rest of the 1950s did not bring India any victory. Even in 1960s India managed to win just two test series one against England in 1961-62 and the other against New Zealand in 1964-65. There was not one player in India at that time that had the international competing skills.

Full name Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar

Born April 24, 1973, Bombay (now Mumbai), Maharashtra

Current age 37 years 212 days

Major teams India, Asia XI, Mumbai, Mumbai Indians,Yorkshire

Nickname Tendlya, Little Master

Batting style Right-hand bat

Bowling style Right-arm offbreak, Legbreak googly

Height 5 ft 5 in

Education Sharadashram Vidyamandir School

 1970s saw India's resurgence with the emergence of players such as Bhagwat Subramanya Chandrashekhar, Bishan Singh Bedi, Erapalli Prasanna, and Srinivas Venkatraghavan made a mark. At the same time India also produced some of the finest batsman of its history such as Sunil Gavaskar and Gundappa Vishwanathan. India registered its arrival with test wins against two of the strongest cricket playing nations in 1970-71 i.e. West Indies and England but even then it was not able to mark its presence in the World Cup. Though some of its players were showing promise but it was enough to qualify for the knockout stages of the World Cup. India was [r1]not able to go beyond first round in the initial two World Cups.

Full name Sourav Chandidas Ganguly

Born July 8, 1972, Calcutta (now Kolkata), Bengal

Current age 38 years 137 days

Major teams India, Asia XI, Bengal, East Zone, Glamorgan,India Under-19s, Kolkata Knight Riders, Lancashire,Marylebone Cricket Club, Northamptonshire

Batting style Left-hand bat

Bowling style Right-arm medium

Height 5 ft 11 in

Education St Xavier's College

Relation Brother - Snehasish C Ganguly

At the end of 1970s things began to brighten up as India registered three remarkable victories over West Indies, Australia and Pakistan under the leadership of Sunil Gavaskar. Then came the best phase of Indian cricket, the phase which every Indian was dreaming of. With the inclusion of players such as Kapil Dev, Mohammad Azharuddin, and Dileep Vengaskar India made a remarkable leap in the history of the world cricket by winning the World Cup in 1983. This world cup win marked the popularity of cricket in India. Then onwards cricket became the game of the masses even our national game hockey does not stand anywhere near it in the matter of popularity. With World Cup started India's "caravan" of cup victories as after winning World Cup it also won two other major Cricket Tournaments. It won Asia Cup in 1984 and the World Championship of Cricket in 1985. 1980s saw some of the brightest moments of Indian cricket.

  In 1989 inclusion of a lean boy of 16 years of age was a landmark in the history of not only India, but of the world. This boy Sachin Tendulkar, is today compared with the greatest cricket legend Sir Donald Bradman. He has surpassed some of the records set up by Sir Bradman and is given the title of 'Master Blaster'. In 1990 another laurel was added to the Indian cricket team in the name of spinner Anil Kumble. Despite the inclusion of biggies in the team India remained a weak test nation outside the sub-continent. It was not able to perform even averagely. It is evident from the fact that out of the 33 tests played by India outside sub continent it was not able to win even a single one. And on the home front too it was not able to show any competence as out of the 30 test played it could manage to win just 17.

In 1990s some other renowned players like Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Javagal Srinath also became part of the Indian cricket squad and as twenty first century approached India again tried to gain its position in cricket. It remained successful to some extent as in 2003 world cup India reached the finals it came next to just the competing giants of cricket that is Australia. And now India is at the sixth place in ICC (International Cricket Council) Cricket ranking.