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Home  » Cricket » India's biggest wins in Test cricket

India's biggest wins in Test cricket

By Rajneesh Gupta
November 28, 2017 08:27 IST
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Rajneesh Gupta presents all the numbers on India's biggest Test triumphs, Virat's victories and Ashwin's achievements.

IMAGE: Virat Kohli, left, and Ravichandran Ashwin are all smiles after winning the second Test in Nagpur. Photograph: BCCI

India's victory in the second Test at Nagpur by an innings and 239 runs is India's 40th win by innings margin.

Eleven of thesse innings victories have come against Sri Lanka -- the most for India against any opponent.

 

The innings win at Nagpur is the most for India along with the victory against Bangladesh by an identical margin in Mirpur in 2007.

India's biggest wins in Test cricket

(by an innings margin)

Margin Vs Venue Year
Innings and 239 runs Bangladesh Mirpur 2007
Innings and 239 runs Sri Lanka Nagpur 2017
Innings and 219 runs Australia Kolkata 1998
Innings and 198 runs New Zealand Nagpur 2010
Innings and 171 runs Sri Lanka Pallekele 2017

The Nagpur win is the 20th for Virat Kohli as captain.

Now only M S Dhoni (27) and Sourav Ganguly (21) have won more Tests as India's captain.

Kohli's win percentage is much higher than Dhoni and Ganguly's.

 

India's most successful captains

At least 5 wins)

  Tests Won Lost Drawn Win%
Virat Kohli 31 20 3 8 64.51
M S Dhoni 60 27 18 15 45
Sourav Ganguly 49 21 13 15 42.86
Rahul Dravid 25 8 6 11 32
Mohammad Azharuddin 47 14 14 19 29.79
Bishan Singh Bedi 22 6 11 5 27.27
M A K 'Tiger' Pataudi 40 9 19 12 22.50
Sunil Gavaskar 47 9 8 30 19.15

Only two skippers have more wins than Virat after the first 31 Tests as captain.

 

Most successful captains in Test cricket

(after 31 Tests)

  Won Lost Drawn Tied Win%
Ricky Ponting 23 3 5 0 74.19
Steve Waugh 21 5 5 0 67.74
Virat Kohli 20 3 8 0 64.51
Michael Vaughan 19 5 7 0 61.29
Mike Brearley 18 4 9 0 58.06
Vivian Richards 18 3 10 0 58.06

Ravichandran Ashwin ended the Test with Lahiru Gamage's wicket, his 300th Test wicket.

The off-spinner is now the quickest in Test cricket to reach this milestone, beating the great Australian fast bowler, Dennis Lillee.

 

Fastest to 300 wickets in Tests

Tests Player
54 Ravichandran Ashwin
56 Dennis Lillee
58 Muttiah Muralitharan
61 Richard Hadlee
61 Malcolm Marshall
61 Dale Steyn
63 Shane Warne
63 Allan Donald

 

Fastest Indians to 300 wickets in Tests

Tests Player
54 Ravichandran Ashwin
66 Anil Kumble
72 Harbhajan Singh
83 Kapil Dev
89 Zaheer Khan

Ashwin has now taken 50 Test wickets in 2017.

In doing so, he became the first Indian and only the third bowler in Test history to take 50 wickets in THREE consecutive years.

Ashwin had also taken 50 wickets in 2015 and 2016.

 

50 Test wickets in three consecutive years

Bowler Year Tests Wickets Average 5I 10M
Shane Warne 1993 16 72 23.56 2 0
1994 10 70 18.20 6 2
1995 12 52 24.11 1 1
Muttiah Muralitharan 2000 10 75 19.50 7 3
2001 12 80 21.23 7 4
2002 8 55 17.80 5 2
Ravichandran Ashwin 2015 9 62 17.20 7 2
2016 12 72 23.90 8 3
2017 10 52 25.55 2 0

At the end of the Nagpur Test, Ashwin's wicket tally under Virat Kohli stands at 182, the highest for any bowler under any captain for India.

Anil Kumble, who took 179 wickets under Mohammad Azharuddin, held the previous record.

 

Most wickets under a captain (for India)

Wickets Bowler (Captain) Tests Average
182 Ravichandran Ashwin (Virat Kohli) 30 22.16
179 Anil Kumble (Mohammad Azharuddin) 36 24.96
177 Harbhajan Singh (Sourav Ganguly) 37 26.85
172 Kapil Dev (Sunil Gavaskar) 45 29.65
167 Anil Kumble (Sourav Ganguly) 31 28.08
152 Ishant Sharma (M S Dhoni) 47 36.66

India's win at Nagpur is their 32nd win this year across all formats (Tests/ODIs/T20Is) -- the most they have ever recorded in a single year.

India had registered 31 wins from as many games last year.

 

Most wins for India in a single year (across formats)

Year Matches Won Lost Tied Drawn/No Result
2017 46 32 11 0 3
2016 46 31 11 0 4
2010 48 29 16 0 3
2013 43 29 11 0 3
2007 55 28 18 1 8

 

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