OTD | England won a Test series in India after a wait of 28 years in 2012 

Alastair Cook and his England side toured India for a 4-match Test series in late 2012. At that point England had been the best Test side having won in Australia and having blanked India 4-0 at home a year ago. Team India on the other hand had lost two of their greats in VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid who had retired earlier in the year. 

India began the series with a nine wicket win in the first Test match that was held in Ahmedabad. Virender Sehwag led the way with the bat as he scored what turned out to be his final Test century for India. Umesh Yadav did well with the ball as the Indian bowlers especially the spinners did well with the ball. 

The second Test moved to Mumbai which was won by England by ten wickets. Kevin Pietersen (186) and Alastair Cook (122) helped their side to a huge score before Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann shared all ten wickets between themselves in the 2nd innings. Only Gautam Gambhir and R. Ashwin were able to reach double figures. 

Indian fortress breached by England 

Kolkata hosted the third Test match and England won the game by 7 wickets. India batted first and scored 316 before England were bowled out for 523 as Cook top scored with 190. Indian batting collapsed once more as they were bowled out for 247 with Ashwin staying not out on 91. 

The final Test moved to Nagpur which was the debut Test for Joe Root and Ravindra Jadeja. The game ended in a draw as the English batters showed grit and determination to help the team win the series. England batting first scored 330 with debutant Joe Root top scoring with 73 runs from 229 balls. In reply India scored 326/9 before declaring their innings as Virat Kohli scored 103 and MS Dhoni scored 99. England in their 2nd innings batted 154 overs and scored 352 runs with Ian Bell and Johnathan Trott scoring centuries. 

Skipper Alastair Cook said at the end of the game “Special day, special tour. Today, it was a flat wicket to bat on but Trotty and Belly did it so calmly. We were quite surprised with the pitch at the start, how low and slow it was, but it got better”

Indian skipper MS Dhoni looking back at the loss said “we struggled in the batting department but their spinners were right on the mark, James Anderson was very good, testing the batsmen. As the game progressed there wasn’t much for the spinners or fast bowlers. If you got your head down it was hard to take wickets”

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