International Matches

                  The Indian cricket team is the national cricket team of India. Governed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), it is a full member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) with Test and One Day International (ODI) status.

                    India's national cricket team did not play its first Test match until 25 June 1932 at Lord's. They became the sixth team to be granted Test cricket status. In its first fifty years of international cricket, India was one of the weakest teams in international cricket, winning only 35 of the 196 Test matches it played during the period.

                  The team, however, gained strength in the 1970s with the emergence of players such as batsmen Sunil Gavaskar and Gundappa Vishwanath, all-rounder Kapil Dev and the Indian spin quartet — Erapalli Prasanna and Srinivas Venkataraghavan (both off spinners), Bhagwat Chandrasekhar (a leg spinner), and Bishen Singh Bedi (a left-arm spinner). Traditionally much stronger at home than abroad, the Indian team has improved its overseas form since the start of the 21st century, winning Test matches in Australia, Englandand South Africa.

The Indian cricket team is currently ranked second as per the ICC Test rankings, second in ODIs and second in T20Is by the ICC. Currently,Mahendra Singh Dhoni is the captain in all forms of the game while Duncan Fletcher is the coach. Under the leadership of Dhoni, the Indian team has set a national record for most back-to-back ODI wins (nine straight wins) and has emerged as one of the most formidable teams in international cricket.

Before 1918

                                     The entire history of cricket in India and the sub-continent as a whole is based on the existence and development of the British Raj via the EastIndia Company.In 1721,the first definite reference to cricket being played anywhere in the sub-continent is a report of english sailors of the East India Company plating a game at Cambay,near Baroda.The Calcutta Cricket and Football Club is known to be in existence by 1792,but was possibly founded more than a decade earlier.In 1799,another club was formed at Seringapatam in soth India after the successful British siege and the defeat of Tipu Sultan.In 1864,a Madras vs. Calcutta match was arguably the start of first-class cricket in India.The most important fixture in the 19th century was the Bombay presidency Match which evolved,first,into the Bombay Traingular and then into the Bombay Quandrangular.The match was first played in 1877 and then intermittently for several seasons  until finally being given first-class status in 1892-93.An English team led by George vernon in 1889-90 was the first foreign team to tour India but none of the matches that it played are cconsidered first-class cricket definitely began in the 1892-93 season with two Euopeans v Parsees matches at Bombay(math drawn) and Poona(parsees won by 3 wickets).In the same season,Lord Hawke captained an English team that played four first-class matches including a game against "All India" on 26-28 January 1893.