Teams who had successful test tours to England.
England, the pioneers of the game along with Australia are among the most difficult sides to defeat on their home soil. England's disciplined nature of batting which prioritizes defence is complemented by a potent seam attack which makes winning improbable for touring teams.
The key requirements for winning in England are bowlers capable of swinging the Duke ball and a defiant batting line-up which rakes up big totals consistently. Throughout the long history of international cricket, there've been many teams which found success in England like the Don's Invincibles, The Windies led by the likes of Worrell, Sobers, Lloyd and Richards, The Pakistanis starting from Imran's young team and more recently Graeme Smith's all-conquering South African team.
Their successful methods are a lesson for aspiring tourists to win in England. India, who are the second team participating in a test series during the 2018 English season, went without defeat in a test series in England for 15 years between 1996 to 2011. Maintaining a record of 15 years without defeat in a foreign nation is something appreciable for a team that has traditionally performed inconsistently in overseas tours. But other teams have been undefeated in a test series in England for longer durations than India.
Note: The time duration between two unsuccessful tours is the criterion for choosing a successful touring team.
West Indies- 1969 to 2000- 31 years.
Having defeated England convincingly in 1963 and 1966, the team led by Gary Sobers in 1969 was expected to have another successful test series but England surprisingly won by a margin of 2-0. But that seemed like a mere aberration as they would go undefeated in England for a long duration of 31 years decimating various English teams.
Additionally, from 1969-1991, the Windies didn't lose a single test match in England, leave alone a test series. This period concurred with the emergence of the world-beating Lloyd's men and after stalemates in 1991 and 1995, the rapidly declining team finally lost in 2000 and relinquished the Wisden Trophy.
Excluding the tests played during the 1969 and 2000 tours, the Windies played 34 tests in England winning a whopping 19, losing four and drawing 11 tests that included the famous 1984 'blackwash'.