England's embarrassing 3-0 defeat at the hands of Pakistan is not their only whitewash against an Asian nation. While the memories of Lloyd, Richards, Marshall, Ambrose et al destroying them in the 1980s and, more recently, the 5-0 Aussie backlash of 2006-7 bring fans and players out in a cold sweat, the 1992-3 tour of India also resulted in a whitewash, with spin again proving decisive. Take a trip down memory lane....
England were already at a fairly low ebb. Without the Ashes, they were then soundly beaten on home territory by Javed Miandad's Pakistan in the summer of 1992. The pace and guile of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis had been superb. England had nonetheless kept faith with the captaincy of Graham Gooch, opening the batting with 'keeper Alec Stewart. The bowling attack was rather weak, though. India had previously narrowly lost South Africa's first home series since returning from the Apartheid wilderness but had some useful young players by the names of Sachin Tendulkar and Anil Kumble as well as the experienced legend known as Kapil Dev.
In the First Test at Eden Gardens, Mohammad Azharuddin chose to bat and led from the front, scoring 182 out of 371. India went for a three-pronged spin attack and bowled England out for 163 in 100 overs. Kumble and his fellow 'slowies' Venkatapthy Raju and Rajesh Chauhan bowled 85 of them and took nine of the wickets. Following on, England fared a bit better at the second time of asking, but lost by eight wickets.
The following week a Chennai, England dropped seamer Paul Taylor to replace him with a third spinner Phil Tufnell. Stewart took over as captain but ceded the gloves to debutant Richard Blakey. It made no difference to the result. Sidhu and Tendulkar reached three figures and the Indians declared at a mighty 560-6. Poor Tufnell took 0-132. In reply, the skipper, Hick and Fairbrother each passed 50 but the rest failed miserably. Following on again, it was another poor performance from the batsman, redeemed only partly by Chris Lewis' stylish 118. Even Tufnell, hardly renowned for his run-scoring, struck more boundaries (three) than Stewart, Hick, Fairbrother and Blakey combined! Nothing could prevent an innings defeat.
So to Mumbai, with the series already in the bag for India. This time, England won the toss and batted first. Gooch and Atherton bolstered the batting and out went Salisbury and Devon Malcolm. Graeme Hick produced an excellent 178 out of 347 all out. However, Vinod Kambli went even better, scoring 224. How sad he didn't fulfil his true world-beating potential alongside Tendulkar but in this match he was instrumental in setting up a 244-run lead. Prabhakar snaffled the top three but after Smith and Gatting's century partnership, the spinners took charge and India claimed another victory by an innings and a 3-0 series triumph. Kumble, Raju and Chauhan took 46 of the 60 English wickets to fall, although it was he former who impressed most, conceding fewer than 20 runs per victim.
England's performance was not as abject as against Pakistan in the UAE, but it was another mismatch between bat and ball. Chauhan and Raju didn't enjoy long Test careers but the 22 year-old leg-spinner Kumble went on to an illustrious career at the top. England finished their Asian tour with another defeat - to Sri Lanka - then were pummelled back home by Australia. India, on the other hand, enjoyed a purple patch. They followed the England whitewash with series wins over Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka twice. Rain robbed them of a chance to beat New Zealand in 1993-4 and they didn't lose a rubber until 1996 when Mike Atherton's England gained their revenge. Will Pakistan go on to bigger things, and England regroup for the summer, too? The world shall watch with great interest.
