Longest unbeaten streaks by Indian captains

Kapil’s devils marked their domination of the ODI format in the 1983 World Cup, and followed it up with a period of Test domination a few years later

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# 2 – Kapil Dev (17 matches)

Kapil Dev might have led India to its first World Cup title, but India’s record in Tests were woefully bad in the initial part of his captaincy tenure. For almost four years, Kapil could not register his first win. However, in the winter of 1985, there was a turnaround. Kapil’s team managed to return undefeated from a tour of Australia, but a win still proved elusive.

The next year, India travelled to England, and this was when something completely unexpected happened. Dilip Vengsarkar played like a man possessed, India beat England in the first two Tests of the series and drew the last.

A long home season followed, where India stayed undefeated against Australia and Sri Lanka, beating the latter twice. This run of invincibility continued till 1987, with an excruciatingly narrow defeat to Pakistan. Sunil Gavaskar fell short of his century in the fourth innings by 4 runs, and India lost by 16 runs.

Unbeaten from September to 1985 to March 1987 – 4 wins, 12 draws, 1 tie