Numbers that matter the most in India's Test cricket history

The 2001 Kolkata Test is one of the greatest wins in India's history

Day one of India's first test against New Zealand at Kanpur not only signals the start of a long test season, but also marks the start of India’s 500^th Test match. India became the third team to play 500 Tests. India’s test history takes us back to 1932 when they played their first match.

Over the years, Indian cricket has evolved a lot as they are one of the formidable sides at the moment. Over 200 players have played for India under 32 captains and they made the country proud by giving out their best on the field. Stats are something that define a particular player on how good or not he is or used to be for the country. 

Therefore, let us take a look at few important numbers that matters the most in Indian cricket.

Result summary:

In the 499 tests India have played so far, they got the better of the opposition 129 times, while they ended up on the losing side on 157 occasions. 212 matches out of 499 have ended in a stalemate and the remaining one match was tied.  

Total number of players to have represented India in Tests: 285

Number of Captains: 32

First Match: 

India faced England in their very first Test match at Lords in June 1932. England comfortably beat India by 158 runs to win the one-match series 1-0.

First Test win:

India's first ever test win came against England at Madras in 1952. Polly Umrigar's 100 and Vinoo Mankad’s 12-wicket haul helped the hosts beat England by an innings and 8 runs.

First ball faced: 

Janardhan Navle was the first Indian batsman to face a ball in Test Cricket. He faced England’s Bill Bowes.

First run scored: 

Janardhan Navle vs England, Lords, 1932

First boundary scored:  

Naoomal Jaoomal vs England, Lords, 1932

First six scored:

Amar Singh vs England, Lords, 1932

First Test 100: 

Lala Amarnath, 118 against England in 1933 at Bombay 

First Test 200:

Polly Umrigar, 223 against New Zealand in 1955 at Hyderabad 

First Test 300:

Virender Sehwag vs Pakistan in 2004 at Multan

Indian cricket team in England in 1932

First ball bowled:

Mohammad Nissar was the first Indian to bowl in a Test match. Percy Holmes was batsman to face Nissar.

First wicket: 

Mohammad Nissar was the first Indian bowler to take a Test wicket when he had Herbert Sutcliffe clean bowled for just 3 runs in India’s first ever test match.

First five-wicket haul: 

Mohammad Nissar became the first Indian to take a five-wicket haul in Tests and he achieved the feat on his test debut against England in 1932, which is also India’s first ever Test match. He dismissed Percy Holmes, Herbert Sutcliffe, Les Ames, Walter Robins and Freddie Brown to complete his fifer.

First hat-trick:

Harbhajan Singh created history in the 2001 Kolkata Test when he dismissed Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist and Shane Warne off three consecutive balls to register India’s first hat-trick in Tests.

Highest team totals:

India’s highest total in Test cricket came against Sri Lanka in the third Test match of the three-match series at the Brabourne stadium, Mumbai in 2009. India went on to score 726-9 which included a swashbuckling 293 from Virender Sehwag and an unbeaten hundred from skipper MS Dhoni.

Lowest team totals:

India’s lowest total in Test cricket came against England in the second Test match of the three-match series at Lord’s in 1974. India were bundled out for just 42 in the second innings as England won the match by an innings and 285 runs. Chris Old and Geoff Arnold were the wreckers in chief as they took 5 wickets and 4 wickets respectively.

Biggest Test win:

By an innings and 239 runs against Bangladesh in 2007 at Dhaka

By 327 runs against South Africa in 2015 at Delhi

By 10 wickets on 7 occasions

Narrowest Test win:

By 13 runs against Australia in 2004 at Mumbai

By 1 wicket against Australia in 2010 at Mohali

*One match between India and Australia ended in a tie in 1986 at Chennai

Biggest Test loss:

By an innings and 336 runs against West Indies in 1958 at Kolkata

By 342 runs against Australia in 2004 at Nagpur

By 10 wickets on 6 occasions

Narrowest Test loss:

By 12 runs against Pakistan in 1999 at Chennai

By 2 wickets against Australia in 1997 at Perth

According to the numbers, Sachin Tendulkar is India's best test batsman 

Most matches: 

Sachin Tendulkar with 200 matches.

Most runs:

Sachin Tendulkar with 15921 runs.

Best batting average (min 2000 runs): 

Sachin Tendulkar with 53.78.

First Indian batsman to reach these landmarks

Runs	Batsman	Opposition	Venue	Year
1000	Vijay Hazare	West Indies	Mumbai	1949
2000	Vijay Hazare	West Indies	Jamaica	1953
3000	Polly Umrigar	England	Kanpur	1961
4000	Sunil Gavaskar	West Indies	Kolkata	1978
5000	Sunil Gavaskar	Australia	Bangalore	1979
6000	Sunil Gavaskar	Australia	Adelaide	1981
7000	Sunil Gavaskar	Pakistan	Lahore	1982
8000	Sunil Gavaskar	West Indies	Delhi	1983
9000	Sunil Gavaskar	Australia	Adelaide	1985
10000	Sunil Gavaskar	Pakistan	Ahmedabad	1987
11000	Sachin Tendulkar	England	Nottingham	2007
12000	Sachin Tendulkar	Australia	Mohali	2008
13000	Sachin Tendulkar	Bangladesh	Chittagong	2010
14000	Sachin Tendulkar	Australia	Bangalore	2010
15000	Sachin Tendulkar	West Indies	New Delhi	2011

Most 300s:

Virender Sehwag with 2 triple hundreds.

Most 200s: 

Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar with 6 double hundreds each.

Most 100s: 

Sachin Tendulkar with 51 tons.

Most 50s: 

Sachin Tendulkar with 68 fifties.

Highest individual score:

Virender Sehwag’s 319 against South Africa at Chennai in 2008 is the highest individual score by an Indian in Tests.

Best partnership: 

Vinoo Mankad and Pankaj Roy- 413 for the first wicket against New Zealand at Chennai in 1956.

According to the numbers, Anil Kumble is India's best bowler

Most wickets: 

Anil Kumble with 619 wickets.

Best bowling average (min 50 wickets): 

Ravindra Jadeja with an average of 23.42.

Most 5 wickets in an innings: 

Anil Kumble on 35 instances.

Most 10 wickets in a match: 

Anil Kumble on 8 instances.

First Indian bowler to reach these landmarks

Wickets	Bowler	Opposition	Venue	Year
100	Shubash Gupte	West Indies	Mumbai	1958
200	BS Bedi	England	Chennai	1977
300	Kapil Dev	Sri Lanka	Cuttack	1987
400	Kapil Dev	Australia	Perth	1992
500	Anil Kumble	England	Mohali	2006
600	Anil Kumble	Australia	Perth	2008

Best bowling in an innings: 

Anil Kumble has the best bowling figures by an Indian in Tests. He took 10-74 in the second test against Pakistan at New Delhi in 1999.

Best bowling in a match: 

Narendra Hirwani’s 16-136 against West Indies at Chennai in 1988 is the best bowling efforts by an Indian bowler in a Test.

Player with most matches as a captain:  

MS Dhoni in 60 matches.

Most catches by a fielder: 

Rahul Dravid with 209 catches.

MS Dhoni has led India in most number of matches

Most catches by a wicket-keeper: 

MS Dhoni with 256 catches.

Most dismissals by a wicket-keeper: 

MS Dhoni with 294 dismissals.

Most Man of the Match awards:

Sachin Tendulkar with 14 awards

Most Man of the Series awards:

R Ashwin with 6 awards

Landmark matches:

50^th match:

Polly Umrigar’s India faced Australia at Chennai in 1956. Richie Benaud’s seven-wicket haul in the first innings followed by Ray Lindwall’s seven-wicket haul in the second innings helped Australia beat India by an innings and 5 runs.

100^th match:

Mansur Ali Khan’s India faced England at Birmingham in 1967 in which a collective team effort from the hosts saw them beat India by 132 runs.

200^th match: 

In 1982, India took on their arch-rivals Pakistan at Lahore in their 200^th Test match under Sunil Gavaskar’s captaincy. Unfortunately, the match ended in a draw.

300^th match:

Sachin Tendulkar led India beat South Africa by 64 runs at Ahmedabad in 1996.

400^th match:

Rahul Dravid’s India celebrated their 400^th Test by creating history as they beat West Indies by 49 runs. With this win, India registered their first series win in the Caribbean in 35 years.