On India's 80th Independence Day, their men's team will feature in their 600th Test match when they take on Sri Lanka in Galle, thus becoming the third team - after England and Australia - to reach that landmark. A look at their journey in 100-Test blocks illustrates quite clearly the strides they have taken as a Test team in the last couple of decades.
India made their debut in 1932 against England at Lord's but took 35 years to reach 100 Tests, while the next two hundred milestones took 15 and 14 years, respectively.
Since then, they have played 100 Tests roughly every ten years. India's wins have increased along with the frequency of matches they played. India won less than one-third of their matches in the first four blocks of 100 Tests, but that went up to 42 and 56, respectively, in the previous two blocks.
India had 56 wins across their first 300 Test matches; the same as the number of Tests won in the most recent block. India did lose 31 matches during this period, as the number of draws came down significantly.
India's rise in recent decades
Turning home venues into fortresses helped India's win-loss record rise sharply in the last couple of decades. This constant improvement saw their overall win tally exceed their losses for the first time in 2024, nearly 92 years after their debut. Recent debacles pulled India back into the negative, though. They now have 186 wins and 188 losses.
India played 50 matches at home during the most recent block of 100 Tests, winning 35 and losing only nine, including five in their last eight. They played 42 home matches in their fifth block of 100 Tests, between 2006 and 2016, winning 26 and losing only four.
They won 61 out of 92 home Tests across the last two blocks, only one less than the 62 wins in 207 matches at home across the first four blocks. India won a record 18 consecutive Test series played at home, between 2013 and 2024.
Likewise, their record away from home improved significantly, winning 37 of 107 matches in the last two blocks, compared with only 26 of 193 in the first four blocks.
India's win-loss ratio in away Tests was nowhere close to 1.00 in any of the first five blocks. But that has now gone up to 0.955 in the most recent block, with 21 wins and 22 defeats across 49 matches. That ratio will be 1.00 if India win against Sri Lanka at Galle, their 600th Test match.
India's rise in the sixth block coincided with Virat Kohli's tenure as captain, during which he finished as India's most successful captain with 40 wins in 68 Tests. As many as 32 of them came across 53 Tests in the sixth block, which is five wins more than any other India captain in their whole career. Twelve of his 32 wins in this period came away from home, which is more than any other Indian captain overall. Ajinkya Rahane, who stood in when Kohli was unavailable, did not lose a Test, winning four of the six in charge.
Pacers catch up with spinners
Improvement in the bowling department, especially fast bowling, happened in parallel with India's rise in Test cricket. In the first two blocks of 100 Tests, spinners took twice as many wickets as pacers. The difference narrowed in the next three blocks, and in the most recent one, fast bowlers outdid the spinners for the first time.
Result-oriented pitches in the World Test Championship have backed the bowling revolution. India's bowlers, over the recent block of 100 Tests, averaged 25.35, which is 9.1 points better than the earlier block. The best average among the first five blocks was 33.03 in the second block, which is still seven points worse than the sixth block.
The bowling strike rates have gradually improved, eventually affecting match lengths. India's bowlers struck once every 50.1 balls in the sixth block, which is more than 15 balls better than the 65.6 in the fifth block, the second best.
Both fast bowlers and spinners were responsible for this huge improvement, with fast bowlers averaging 26 and spinners 24.62. Neither averaged fewer than 30 in the first five blocks. On the strike rate front as well, neither of them struck at fewer than 60 balls per wicket. But in the sixth block, they took wickets at 48.5 and 51.8, respectively.
Dropping averages
The conditions under which the matches were played also affected the batting averages. The batting averages kept improving every block from the first to the fifth, only to see a reduction in the sixth. India's batters averaged 33.21, about a run and a half lower than 34.9 in the fifth block.
Among the 12 batters with 1000-plus runs in the most recent block of 100 Tests, only two averaged 45 or more, and none touched 50. Only in the first block did no batter average 50 while scoring 1000-plus runs, while only one batter averaged 45 or more.
On the other hand, all nine bowlers with 50-plus wickets in the sixth block averaged under 30 and struck at fewer than 60 balls per wicket. In the first block, no bowler struck at fewer than 70, and only three averaged under 30.
In fact, in the most recent block, five bowlers averaged under 25, including two averaging under 20. Across the first five blocks, only one bowler had an average lower than 25. Similarly, four bowlers had a strike rate lower than 50 in the sixth block, while none had done so previously.
India's rise to the big three
Comparing India with other teams in each of the 100-Test blocks shows how India has climbed the rungs in the last couple of decades. India's win-loss ratio had ranked sixth during the first, second and fourth blocks, while they were fifth in the third block. But in the fifth block, they moved to third, behind only South Africa and Australia. In the most recent block, they are ranked only behind Australia.
Their ranks in batting and bowling averages also moved up significantly. Their batting average was fifth among seven teams during their first block and sixth among eight sides in the second block. In the following four blocks, they have either been the team with the second or third-best batting average.
On the bowling front, the rise is more sudden, as they were not among the top five in bowling average over the first four blocks. They moved to fifth in the fifth block and are second in the latest block, only behind the WTC holders, South Africa. Their bowling strike rate is also the second-best after South Africa.
The numbers raked up by the fast bowlers were middling until recently. In each of the first five blocks, they were ranked seventh or worse in average and sixth or worse in strike rate. But in both metrics, they moved up to third and second, respectively. Spinners, however, were much more consistent, featuring in the top four in each of the first four blocks. They were the second-best in both average and strike rate during the fifth block, and topped on both counts in the sixth block.
The individual leaders
Sachin Tendulkar and Dilip Vengsarkar are the only batters to feature twice among the top three run-getters for India in multiple blocks of 100 Tests. With the ball, the two leading wicket-takers for India, Anil Kumble and R Ashwin, feature twice in the top three. Kumble was the second-highest wicket-taker in the third block before topping the fourth block with 405 wickets, while Ashwin did the same across the fifth and sixth blocks.
Tendulkar was India's top-scorer in the fifth block with 5452 runs and scored even more (7499) in the fourth block, but finished behind Rahul Dravid's 8741, which is the highest any India batter scored in a block. In fact, Dravid was the highest run-getter among all batters during the fourth block of India's 100 Tests (1996-2006) while Tendulkar was fifth.
The only other instance of an Indian topping the overall charts during a block was Sunil Gavaskar in the second block, during which he scored 7034 runs. Gavaskar's batting efforts during that period helped him become the leading run-getter in the format for a significant period and also made him the first to reach 10,000 Test runs.
Tendulkar, who eventually became the leading run-getter and the current holder of that record, remains the only player to feature in 200 Tests, which is one-third of India's total matches. Through his 24-year career, Tendulkar missed only 17 Tests, featuring in 92.1% of the matches India played. His longevity saw him feature in three different blocks - third, fourth and fifth - among top batters. He scored over 1000 runs in each of them and averaged more than 50.
Unlike the batters, the Indian bowlers did not top the overall charts during a specific block. The best was Ashwin in the sixth block, during which his 334 wickets were the second-most. Despite taking 405 wickets, Kumble ranked fourth during the fourth block, with Muthiah Muralidaran, Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne ahead of him.