5 moments that changed Indian cricket forever

Cricket, just like any other sport, needs its iconic moments and superstars to inspire the young generation. Just look at the just concluded summer in England. The ridiculousness of Ben Stokes’ performance in the World Cup final and the Headingley Test against the improbability of odds, the renaissance of Steve Smith and the emergence of Jofra Archer and off-course that World Cup final and whatever happened around it hooked and inspired a plethora of ten-year-olds to take up the game.

Just like English cricket this summer, Indian cricket during the course of its history has had multiple magnanimous moments; one that not only inspired the younger generation but also changed the game forever.

Here’s the compilation

1. Test series win in WI and England, 1971

If 1983 kickstarted the ODI cricket revolution in India, the year 1971 was equally symbolic for its Test side. It was a year where the Ajit Wadekar-led side did what the captains of both present, past or even future would have as the first thing to achieve on their bucket list: win a Test series in overseas conditions.

Wadekar and his team did that twice during the summer of 1971, beating West Indies and England in their own den. The series in the West Indies unleashed Sunil Gavaskar to the world. The opening batsman had a breakout debut series where he scored 774 runs across 4 Tests and along with Dileep Sardesai, who scored a double hundred in the opening Test was a key contributor in the series win.

Riding on their maiden series win in the Caribbean, India went to England riding high on confidence. England had not lost their last 24 Test matches which they would take to 26 after drawing the first two Tests. But, India, buoyed by Chandrashekar 6-38 in the second innings rattled England for a mere 101, leaving themselves a target of 173, which they duly achieved courtesy valuable contributions from Sardesai (40), Vishwanath (33) and Engineer (28*).

It would take India another 25 years (2006) to win their Test series in the Caribbean and almost 15 (1986) and 21 years (2007) in England to register the other two series wins, putting into context why the summer of 1971 was truly special.