Kapil Dev had done it once, and therefore, he wasn’t shy when a second opportunity knocked on his door
Before Sourav Ganguly, MS Dhoni, and Rohit Sharma etched their names as some of India’s finest captains, it was Kapil Dev, a bowling all-rounder, who had done the impossible, i.e., winning the World Cup despite being an underdog team.
The icing on top was the fact that the team had defeated the mighty West Indies in the finale to lift the trophy. However, there’s one fact that often gets overshadowed—the trophy was won on English soil at the Lord’s, which is known as the Mecca of Cricket.
For the English crowd, it was a bitter pill to swallow to clap for a nation that they once ruled—a nation that had won its independence from British colonisation in 1947 and, within a span of 36 years, lifted the World Cup in a sport.
This wasn’t Kapil Dev’s sole achievement in the game as a captain; they had many occasions, and one of them came during an England vs. India Test match.
Given the England vs. India series is in progress with the third Test scheduled to be played at the Lord’s, let’s recall the only three Indian captains who have ever registered a Test victory at the Mecca of Cricket.
India toured England for a Test series, and the first game was played at Lord’s. Batting first, England had posted 294 runs. In response, the Indian batting lineup displayed maturity, with Mohinder Amarnath scoring 69 runs, while Dilip Vengsarkar hit 129 runs, which helped India post 341 runs.
Cappie Dev couldn’t do much in the first innings, but he displayed his prowess in the second innings, picking four wickets and stopping England at 180. In the second innings, India scored 135 to win the game by five wickets.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni scripted numerous historic milestones in his career, including India’s second Test victory at Lord’s after a gap of 28 years. Although Dhoni’s performance was poor with the bat, it was the power of his gloves that grabbed six crucial catches behind the wicket, and it was his mind that knew how to read the game.
The rest of the job was done by the likes of Ajinkya Rahane (103), Murali Vijay (95), Ravindra Jadeja (52), and Ishant Sharma’s seven-wicket haul in the second innings. Not to forget, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, despite being a tailender, had scored 36 and 52 across two innings.
Batting first, Rohit Sharma (83) and KL Rahul (129) had set the tone that saw India score 364 in the first innings. However, England fought back with Joe Root’s 180 that helped England score 391 runs despite Md. Siraj’s four wickets and Ishant Sharma’s three.
However, affairs turned ugly for India when the team stood at 209/8. That’s when two determined tailenders, Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah, entered the pitch and stitched a 77-run partnership—India posted 298 in the second innings. England, before they could respond, was mercilessly attacked by Siraj again, who grabbed four wickets and was well-supported by Jasprit Bumrah’s three scalps.
India scripted its third Test victory at Lord’s after another hiatus of seven years, but only its third ever.
