India lost its first Test at Lord's, then conquered world cricket
India lost its first Test, at Lord's in 1932, by 158 runs. In 1983 the side returned to the same ground and beat the two-time champions West Indies in the World Cup final, and it has since grown into a cricket power that has won the T20 World Cup a record three times.
The British brought cricket to India in the early 1700s, and the first recorded match there was played in 1721. In 1848 the Parsi community of Mumbai founded the Oriental Cricket Club, the first club set up by Indians. India joined the International Cricket Council in 1926 and played its debut Test in England in 1932 under C. K. Nayudu, then regarded as the country's finest batsman.
Through the 1970s India's strength lay in four spinners, Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan, Bishan Singh Bedi, B. S. Chandrasekhar and E. A. S. Prasanna, who used turning home pitches to topple opposing batting. Sunil Gavaskar and Gundappa Viswanath emerged alongside them, and at Port-of-Spain in 1976 India chased 403 to beat West Indies, a Test record at the time. Gavaskar went on to become the first man to reach 10,000 Test runs.
One-day cricket was a weakness at first, and India missed the knockouts at the first two World Cups. Then, on 25 June 1983, a more attacking side featuring Kapil Dev and Ravi Shastri beat West Indies at Lord's for the title. Sachin Tendulkar and Anil Kumble arrived in 1989 and 1990, yet across the 1990s India failed to win any of its 33 Tests outside the subcontinent.
In 2000 a match-fixing scandal brought a life ban for former captain Mohammad Azharuddin, a low the BBC called Indian cricket's worst hour. Sourav Ganguly's captaincy and John Wright, the first foreign coach, started a revival. India won the World Cup again in 2011, the Champions Trophy in 2002, 2013 and 2025, and T20 World Cups in 2007, 2024 and 2026.
Source: India national cricket team
