The 80's. India's horrible decade in test cricket.

[patriot]

A WC and World Championship notwithstanding, the 80's was a horrible, horrible decade for us in Test cricket. Surprised to see that we were the worst performing team bar then minnows, SL. http://stats.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/stats/index.html?class=1;spanmax1=31+Dec+1989;spanmin1=01+Jan+1980;spanval1=span;template=results;type=team Guess this performance just got covered up for our 2 major one-day exploits.

[vvvslaxman]

Plenty of draws. Only highlight i can think of was India's win in England in 1986. One another notable performance was in Australia drawing the series in 1980/81. Lost lot of tests to West Indies which every team did in that decade. Lost 4 tests to Pakistan.

[punjabi_khota]

Wow look at WI. Their W/L ratio is 6 times the next best. :lmao:

[Guest Hiten.]

Another notable thing is all the teams had a 2 digit LS :haha:

[patriot]

Hadlee was really the standout bowler of the 80's carrying through the perenially mediocre Kiwi test side. With 22 fewer tests played, the Kiwis won 6 more matches than us.

[vvvslaxman]

Hadlee was really the standout bowler of the 80's carrying through the perenially mediocre Kiwi test side. With 22 fewer tests played, the Kiwis won 6 more matches than us.

He led the famous rout in Australia picking up 33 wickets for the series. I think those videos are still available. Our players were more stuck on scoring centuries. India knew it was going to rain in MCG in 1986. We had about 25 overs to chase down 126 runs. They crawled to 59 for 2 in 25 overs.Even Srikkanth made only 38 in 61 balls. Sunil Manohar Gavaskar made 8 runs in 54 balls. Imagine a Virendar Sehwag there.

[patriot]

Sunny, as great he was, was one of India's most defensive captains ever. A draw abroad was a win. Good enough we din't have decent backup apart from Kapil. But what sucked the most was his defensive mentality in home tests wherein the defensive shutters would roll down if we wo nthe 1st test of a series.

[Karan114]

Another notable thing is all the teams had a 2 digit LS :haha:

Wonder how the West Indies were dismissed for 53 by in that decade given their utter dominance!

[saneindian]

Not a surprise given how weak our bowling was in tests. Look at this http://stats.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/stats/index.html?class=1;spanmax1=31+Dec+1989;spanmin1=01+Jan+1980;spanval1=span;team=6;template=results;type=bowling During the decade, Kapil had 272 wickets in 80 tests, next best was Shastri! Doesn't need any further explanation. We never had the attack to take 20 wickets. For home tests, in the name of spinners we had Maninder, Doshi, Arshad Ayub and Shivlal Yadav! Despite their awesome record in domestic cricket, these guys would struggle to get into even the India A teams of today.

[Macj]

I remember the 1987 series against the Windies, that was the first cricket I watched, weird now that i think of it i was supporting WI all the way till Hirwani destroyed them in the final test. Starting off in Delhi where we bowled out for 75 and the revelation of a certain Patrick Patterson to a well deserved 16 wickets for Hirwani out-spinning greats like Richards. Those were the days, you had a good 30% attendance at all Tests across India.