8 greatest Indian Test captains of all time

#7 Mohammad Azharuddin

Under Azhar, India went on an unprecedented winning streak at home in the 1990s

Perhaps Indian cricket’s most famous controversial son, Mohammad Azharuddin emerged onto the international scenes in the home series against England in 1985 and stunned everyone with 3 centuries in his first three Tests. Although India lost that series 2-1, Azhar had done enough for the world to stand up and take notice.

Five years down the line, after some promising and not so promising series, he was handed over the captaincy for the first time in 1989. It saw the beginning of what is now known as home-domination by India in Tests. Out of the 7 bilateral Test series that he led India in at home, India didn’t lose any. They defeated all major Test playing nations of the time except South Africa – who India didn’t play against under Azhar’s captaincy – between 1990 to 1998, and it was one of the longest winning streaks at home by India.

In away tours, however, India failed to win a single Test series under the Hyderabadi batsman’s captaincy, except the series against Sri Lanka in 1993. They lost against Australia, New Zealand, England and South Africa between 1990-1998/99. Nevertheless, these failures cannot and must not take the sheen away from Azhar’s leadership and motivational skills and the habit of winning at home that he inculcated into the Indian Test side.

His own form too was imperious during those series victories at home. Some of his highlight knocks include the 182 against England at Calcutta in 1993, 152 against Sri Lanka in 1994 at Ahmedabad, and a series-levelling 163 against South Africa at Kanpur. Overall, he averaged 55.93 at home in 46 games and 43.93 as captain of India in 47 Tests.

A number of youngsters, who were to be few of India’s all-time greats either debuted or prospered under Azharuddin, namely Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, and Sourav Ganguly.

Ganguly, also a great captain in his own merit, made his debut alongside Rahul Dravid in 1996 at Lord’s and scored a century. Dravid too made a gutsy 95 in his first innings ever in Test match cricket.

Tendulkar was at his assailing best during the period between 1996-1999 – not that he wasn’t always at his best throughout his career – averaging 41.53, 62.50, 80.87 and 68.00 and crossing 1000 runs in a calendar year twice – in 1997 and 1999. However, for a brief period, 1996-97 to 2000 Tendulkar too had led India in Tests.

India’s most prolific wicket-taker in Tests, Anil Kumble, took a lion’s share of his 619 wickets under Azhar’s leadership. The leg-spinner accounted for 179 wickets from 36 matches that he played under Azharuddin.