In the past four decades, India have played 30 Tests in England and have won only four. Nevertheless those victories have come at opportune times, contributing to series victories in 1986 and 2007. Of course 2011 witnessed India's humiliating 4-0 drubbing, more humbling than even England's Ashes debacle last winter. When looking back over the nine series played in this period, there have been great batting performances from both sides, but it is with the bowling that England have dominated. This is apparent when selecting my teams of the past forty years.
ENGLAND: Graham Gooch will always be remembered for his 333 against India in 1990, and nobody has scored more than the 1134 runs he accumulated against this opposition in England across ten Tests. Michael Vaughan, though, boasts a superior average, at 75.83. His 910 runs were scored in only seven matches, including two scores of 190+ in 2002. Even Mike Atherton has a decent record at home to India but Gooch and Vaughan are my openers.
Kevin Pietersen's record is also excellent. He amassed 878 runs at almost 80 between 2007 and 2011, the highlight being his unbeaten 202 in the Lord's success almost exactly three years ago. Ian Bell played in the same seven Tests, collecting 694 at 52.87, a touch higher than David Gower's average. However, the former England strokemaker appeared twelve times and made 833 runs. At this point, I have to confess I have ignored a batsman who has an average of 260 at home to India! Nevertheless, he fails to make my team because David 'Bumble' Lloyd scored those 260 runs in only two games, albeit including an unbeaten 214 forty summers ago. Although Matt Prior has a century to his name, Alec Stewart's 423 runs at 52.87 between 1996 and 2002 earns him the gloves.
Perhaps surprisingly, Ian Botham's career batting average of 80.87 is the best of anyone in the last nine England v India rubbers. He never liked touring the subcontinent but he made up for it by destroying India on home territory, with bat and ball. 647 runs and 29 wickets at 27 make for an exceptional set of all-round statistics. His 11 catches also put him second behind Gooch amongst non-wicketkeepers in this period.
Bob Willis claimed one more victim than Beefy; 30 at an average of 24.16. Mike Hendrick is an under-rated England stalwart. History has been less kind to him than, say, Botham and Willis, but his swing and seam in '74 were as dangerous as anybody's. His match figures of 7-71 did as much as Lloyd's double-century to beat India by an innings in that game at Edgbaston. In '74 and '79 he took 26 wickets at under 17 apiece. Moving forward to more recent times, Stuart Broad's series average of 13.84 in 2011 is even more special, and he makes my fantasy XI alongside Jimmy Anderson. While the latter's average of 27 is not spectacular, his wicket tally of 35 is unsurpassed on the England side.
INDIA: The visitors, of course, have had their fair share of superstars even if some didn't quite reproduce their form for India in England. Gambhir, Bedi, Sehwag and Harbhajan Singh spring to mind. It's no surprise that Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid have more runs to their name than anybody else on either team. Dravid collected 1376 runs at 68.80 and was India's sole beacon of excellence in that disastrous 2011 series. Three of his six centuries came in that run of four heavy defeats. Some of his runs came as an opener, so he starts alongside the legendary Sunil Gavaskar. In 13 Tests between 1974 and 1986, he made 1008 runs at 46.
SRT represented his country 17 times in Test matches in England and his average of 54.31 more or less matches his career record around the world. Saurav Ganguly scored fewer runs (960 to the Little Master's 1575) but 65.35 makes for a superior batting average. He was player of the series in 1996 and led his country with a 128 to an innings defeat of Hussain's side at Headingley in 2002. My middle-order is completed by Dilip Vengsarkar. He and Gavaskar did so much to keep Indian innings afloat in the 1970s and early '80s, as witnessed by his rearguard 157 at Lord's in '82 and 102 not out in the Headingley victory four years later.
MS Dhoni pips Faroukh Engineer to the wicketkeeper slot, but not by much. India's all-rounder line-up pretty much begins and ends with Kapil Dev. Ravi Shastri had his moments in England but his spin bowling netted him a mere 11 wickets at over 70 apiece! Kapil's average of 39.18 is nothing to write home about but he did claim 43 wickets with his fast bowling and score 638 runs at 35.44 with the bat. His only century came in his last appearance in 1990 but his most memorable innings was an 89 in 55 balls at Lord's in 1982. It merely delayed the inevitable defeat but it did make England bat again and give Botham and Willis something to fret about for an hour or so.
None of India's great spinners set the world alight over here, but Anil Kumble gets a place in my team because of his 36 wickets. Chetan Sharma (16 wickets at 18.75 in 1986) and Praveen Kumar (15 at under 30 in 2011) have decent records in single series but my India XI is completed by Zaheer Khan. 31 wickets at under 28 represents a decent return over eight Tests, and his nine wickets at Trent Bridge seven years ago earned him the MOTM award.
In summary;
ENGLAND: Gooch, Vaughan (*), Pietersen, Gower, Bell, Stewart (+), Botham, Broad, Anderson, Hendrick, Willis
INDIA: Gavaskar, Dravid, Tendulkar, Vengsarkar, Ganguly (*), Dhoni (+), Kapil Dev, Kumble, Zaheer Khan, Kumar, Sharma
