I blogged previously about England's mixed fortunes in India between 1972 and 1985, the last time they won an away Test series between the two nations. Because of a row over Graham Gooch's participation in a shameful rebel tour of South Africa, the 1989 tour was cancelled so when Gooch (now forgiven) led England to Asia in 1993, there had been an eight-year gap.
In 1990, the skipper had helped himself to 456 runs in the Lord's Test alone, and in the three reverse fixtures the England batting line-up boasted the likes of Stewart, Robin Smith, Hick and one of the 1985 stars, Mike Gatting. However, it was hardly a vintage bowling attack, led by Devon Malcolm, Chris Lewis and Paul Jarvis. Their opponents fielded captain Mohammad Azharuddin, ageing legend Kapil Dev, the supremely talented youngsters Tendulkar and Kambli and one of the new breed of leg-spinners, Anil Kumble. As things turned out, it was no contest; England were totally outplayed in every department, on and off the pitch. There were two, and almost three, innings defeats with Kumble taking almost as many wickets as the entire English seam attack between them. Hick and Lewis were the only centurions during the series while the Indians helped themselves to hundreds apiece, topped by Kambli's 224 at Mumbai. Gooch's series aggregate fell well short of that Lord's
England had another eight years to regroup, although England nicked the 1996 home series by 1-0. By December 2001, Nasser Hussain and Saurav Ganguly were the rival leaders and at Mohali there were shades of 1993 as India triumphed by ten wickets. Kumble and Harbhajan Singh took fifteen and Dasgupta outscored the now legendary quartet of Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly and Laxman with 100. By the time they moved on to Ahmedabad, Graeme Thorpe had gone home for personal reasons but Craig White (121) and Marcus Trescothick (99) gave England a first innings lead, but a draw ensued. Rain washed out half the Bangalore game, handing India the series.
In March 2006, England were ultra-confident after that Ashes summer. However, Michael Vaughan, Simon Jones, Marcus Trescothick and Ashley Giles were missing but, despite these key absences, Andrew Flintoff's team had the better of the First Test before India batted out a draw. A certain Alistair Cook made an impressive debut, scoring 60 and 104 not out. The following week at Mohali, Munaf Patel and Kumble spun India to a nine-wicket triumph but at Mumbai there was a famous England success. An Andrew Strauss century set the scene but an inspired Flintoff and Shaun Udal dismissed India on the final day to square the series.
At the end of 2008, the ODI series was curtailed by the horrific terror attacks on Mumbai, and England went home. However, they returned with honour to play two Tests.
Pietersen had controversially been named captain of the tourists but it was his successor Strauss who struck two centuries at Chennai. However, strokeplay from Sehwag, Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh pulled it out of the bag on day five to win by six wickets. Mohali enjoyed a triple-century stand between Sehwag and Dravid but a KP 144 kept his side in the contest, but not enough to win the game. India were on their way to the number one spot, only to throw it away in England in 2011.
The two nations are now also-rans in the ICC league table but India fancy revenge after that debacle just over a year ago. Much has been said about England's vulnerability to spin and their relative paucity of quality spinners themselves. However, Derek Underwood apart, much of their success in India has been down to seamers from Old and Willis to Hoggard and Anderson. The latter, plus Finn, Broad and Bresnan could well emulate their mid-70s predecessors. We shall see....
