As former coach Ravi Shastri envisioned, India’s test team has consistently managed to take the pitch out of the equation and claim some memorable overseas victories in recent years. India has certainly gotten a better travel team and that has overshadowed their dominance in recent years.
India competes against New Zealand as they begin a home testing series for the first time in the new World Test Championship cycle. New Zealand is the reigning test world champion and India doesn’t have many stars, including Captain Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Jasprit Bumrah, for the series opener in Kanpur, but guest captain Kane Williamson admitted that the visitors aren’t favorites for the series Win series.
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Legendary Richard Hadlee said that at home, India is almost unbeatable. Former coach Ravi Shastri once boasted that visiting teams have little chance of disrupting India during tests at home. These are not exaggerations. The numbers don’t lie.
INDIA ‘ALMOST UNBEATABLE’ AT HOME
India beat England 3-1 to record their 13th consecutive home win in the Test series in 2021 (AFP photo)
Since the beginning of 2013, India has won 13 series in a row at home, putting Australia’s 10 series (between 2000 and 2008) in the shade. During the period mentioned India played 38 Tests, only losing 2 of them and winning 31 of them. Dominant!
India has beaten eight test nations in eight years, beaten England and Australia twice and at the same time won one-off victories against Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
India lost 2-1 to England as captain of MS Dhoni in 2012/13, but the Asian giants have never let an opposing team break through the fortress since then. Steve Smith’s Australia came closest to the improbable when they moved into the final test of the 4-game series with a 1-1 result in 2017. Joe Roots England began his campaign with a clinical win over India in Chennai in 2021, but they were comfortably dumped by Virat Kohli’s men 3-1 at the end of the series.
A look at India’s dominant home testing since 2013
India was tested by an Australian visiting team in 2017. The hosts won the series 2-1 in Dharamsala (AP Photo)
- 2012-13 – India beat Australia 4-0
- 2013-14 – India defeated West Indies 2-0
- 2015-16 – India beat South Africa 3-0 (4 series of tests)
- 2016-17 – India beat New Zealand 3-0
- 2016-17 – India defeat England 4-0 (5 series of tests)
- 2016-17 – India beat Bangladesh 1-0 (one-off test)
- 2016-17 – India defeated Australia 2-1 (4 Series of Tests)
- 2017/18 – India defeat Sri Lanka 1-0 (3 series of tests)
- 2018 – India defeat Afghanistan 1-0 (one-off test)
- 2018/19 – India defeated West Indies 2-0
- 2019/20 – India defeated South Africa 3-0
- 2019/20 – India beat Bangladesh 2-0
- 2020/21 – India defeat England 3-1 (4 Test series)
Before the start of the enviable home game, India also beat New Zealand 2-0 in 2012.
It is certainly an enormous task for the men of Kane Williamson. Especially New Zealand. The last time the Black Caps won a Test in India was in 1988 by a team led by former Indian coach John Wright. You have never won a series in India.
All eyes will be on Rahul Dravid as the new Indian head coach has certainly inherited a great testing team. The Dravid-Ajinkya Rahane combo is expected to complete the Black Caps challenge in Kanpur before Virat Kohli returns to lead the squad in Mumbai.
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