Test Cricket: Team India's 5 monumental away series victories

England, 1986

England v India, 2nd Test, Headingley, Jun 86

Probably the greatest overseas victory for team India was in 1986 when Kapil Dev led his Indian side to victory on English soil. A dynamic England team skippered by David Gower had the likes of Mike Gatting, Graham Gooch and Phil Edwards in his side for the match at Lords.

England started the game by batting first, and scored 294 courtesy of a brilliant century by opener Gooch. India came out with a mission to surpass England's total and give themselves a lead, and they did just that. Dilip Vengsarkar scored a brilliant century to help India post 341 and take a slight lead over their English rivals. Then on in, it was the Kapil Dev show as his bowling spell reduced England to 180 all out as India were set a modest target of 135. India got the total comfortably to win the match by 5 wickets and take a 1-0 lead in the series.

The next match had some changes in captaincy as Mike Gatting took over from David Gower for the remainder of the series. The leadership might have changed but the fortunes of English cricket didn’t as they lost again and this time even more embarrassingly, as India won the series with their second victory. Dilip Vengsarkar was awarded the man of the match trophy for his 2nd innings century at Leeds as India won the match by 279 runs.

England did put up a good show in the final test but the resilient Indian side were equally impressive as the match ended in a draw. India had won the series 2-0 and the fans were delighted.

India’s current coach Ravi Shastri was named the man of the series for India.