Longest unbeaten streaks by Indian captains

Indian cricket’s renaissance came about during Sunil Gavaskar’s captaincy

# 1 – Sunil Gavaskar (18 matches)

After the burst in the 1950s, similar highs were few and infrequent in Indian cricket for the next two decades, until the renaissance under Sunil Gavaskar. The mighty West Indies could not break through the Indian defence in 1978, marking the start of a period of two years when India would only lose one Test, that too when Gavaskar was not leading.

In the summer of 1979, India lost a series in England 0-1, drawing the last three matches of the tour. Srinivas Venkataraghavan was the captain during this series, but Gavaskar was reinstated in the series against Australia at home next month. Gavaskar had led on 7 occasions by then, not losing even once.

A long home season followed in 1979/80, with Australia and Pakistan visiting, what is remembered as one of the most successful periods in Indian cricket history. Gavaskar’s team beat both teams by a margin of 2-0.

Gavaskar finally lost a match in 1981, on a tour of Australia, ending a streak of 18 matches.

Unbeaten from December 1978 to January 1981 – 6 wins, 12 draws (India, however, lost 2 matches in this duration, one under Venkataraghavan and one under Gundappa Vishwanath)

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Team India’s longest unbeaten streaks

Feb 53 to Jan 56 – 11 draw, 2 wins (Vijay Hazare vs WI, Vinoo Mankad vs Pak, Polly Umrigar vs NZ, broken by Aus in Chennai)

Aug 79 to Jan 80 – 11 draw, 4 wins (Venkataraghvan vs Eng, Gavaskar vs Aus and Pak, broken by Eng at Mumbai)

Sep 85 to Mar 87 – 12 draw, 4 wins, 1 tie (Kapil Dev vs Aus, Eng, SL, Pak, broken by Pak at Chinnaswamy)

Jan 93 to Dec 94 – 5 draw, 9 wins (Azharuddin vs Eng, SL, broken by WI in Punjab)

Oct 08 to Jan 10 – 6 draw, 8 wins (Kumble vs Aus, Dhoni vs Eng, NZ, SL, Bang, broken by SA at Vidarbha)

Aug 15 to present – 3 draws, 8 wins (Kohli vs SL, SA, WI)