Must-Read! 20 Unknown facts about the Indian Cricket Team

Cricket has been one of India’s most popular sports since the early 1800s. The game is thought to have originated in England, but it quickly spread to India and became one of the country’s most popular pastimes. The Indian Cricket Team is one of the most loved teams in the world.

Of all bat-and-ball sports, the Indian cricket team is the most popular. They are a legendary institution that is always looking for championships in every game format. Even though it is nearly impossible to accompany the Men in Blue on their journeys, you can watch Indian cricket live streaming from any region in the world as long as you have a membership to the appropriate streaming provider.

Every game played by the Indian National Team can be viewed online and occasionally on television. This is true whether they are participating in a major tournament, such as the World Cup or the T20 World Cup, or a regular Test, ODI, or T20I series in India or elsewhere.

Fun facts about the Indian Cricket Team:

1. India is the only country in the world to have won the 60-over, 50-over, and 20-over World Cups.
2. The Indian team was the first cricket team to be dismissed twice in a single day (58 in the first innings and 82 in the second innings) in a Test match against England in 1952.
   The only other team to have achieved this dreadful feat is Zimbabwe, which has twice lost to New Zealand on the same day (in 2005 and 2011).
3. Bhausaheb Nimbalkar is the only cricketer to score a quadruple hundred in a domestic competition, and he also set a record-breaking 443 runs in the 1948-1949 season.

   

4. Sir Don Bradman, who at the time had the fourth-highest score in history with 452, was his closest competitor at the time. Nimbalkar’s team had a score of 826/4 at the time of the lunch break, and he was on track to break Don’s record. The opposing captain, Thakore Saheb of Rajkot, forfeited the game to protect his team’s reputation.
5. Later, in a letter, Sir Don Bradman informed Bhausaheb Nimbalkar that the innings were superior to his own.
6. Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, 21, became the youngest test captain in history. In 2004, only Zimbabwean captain Tatenda Taibu broke this record.

   

7. Sourav Ganguly became the only ODI cricketer in history to win four consecutive Man of the Match awards following the team’s performance in a five-match ODI series against England in June 2016.
8. The bowling action was used as the logo for the 1999 Cricket World Cup, which was held in the United Kingdom. The logo was inspired by none other than Indian new ball bowler Debashis Mohanty, who opened the bowling for India alongside Venkatesh Prasad in that match.

   

9. He transformed into a promising fast bowler. After all, his movement became good enough to promote the World Cup brand. However, his profession was cut short due to injuries and a lack of playing opportunities.
10. The first cricket team in India predates our independence. An all-Parsi cricket team called the ‘Oriental Cricket Club’ was formed in Mumbai in 1848.
11. In 1932, India played their first-ever Test match against England at Lord’s. The country also played its first ODI against England in 1974. India’s first T20 match was against South Africa in Johannesburg in 2006.
12. India has previously won the World Cup twice. The first was in 1983 when Kapil Dev captained India to a victory over the West Indies. We won again against Sri Lanka in 2011 under captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, 28 years later.
13. The first ODI in India was played between India and England in 1981 at the Sardar Vallabhai Patel Stadium in Ahmedabad.
14. In the 1975 World Cup, England’s Dennis Amiss scored the first century in World Cup history, scoring 137 runs against India. On the same day, New Zealand’s Glen Turnbull earned 171 runs while still holding his wicket against East Africa, setting a record for the highest individual total in World Cup history until Kapil Dev broke it in 1983 when he hit 175 runs not out against Zimbabwe.

    

15. Virat Kohli completed 50 centuries in 279 innings in the semi-final match against New Zealand 40 years later, breaking Sachin Tendulkar’s world #1 record of 49 centuries in the ODI format. Another Indian batsman, the current captain, Rohit Sharma, has the third-highest number of centuries.

    

16. India’s World Cup match in 2023 has served as a sort of redemption arc for coach Rahul Dravid. While he was Captain, India was eliminated from the championship in the first round in 2007.
17. This defeat sparked widespread outrage in the country, with players receiving death threats, physical assault, effigies being burned, and harsh criticism. With the team’s outstanding performance this year under Dravid’s leadership, we can’t wait to see The Wall have his own “Chak De” moment.
18. The country is chanting Mohammed Shami’s name because of his performance on the field. In fact, through the semi-finals, the bowler has taken 23 wickets in just six games. Mitchell Starc of Australia currently holds the record for most wickets taken in any World Cup, with 27 (in 10 matches).
19. Shami’s performance is all the more impressive given that he was benched for the first four games of the 2023 Cup and was only brought on after Hardik Pandya was injured.

    

20. And now, in only his 17th World Cup innings, Shami has become the first Indian bowler to claim 50 World Cup wickets, and by the time he took his third wicket against New Zealand, he had surpassed Zaheer Khan and Javagal Srinath’s previous Indian record of 44 wickets. Mohammad Shami is also the only Indian bowler with a seven-wicket haul in both an ODI and a World Cup match.

So, this was all about the unknown and interesting facts about the Indian cricket team. Also read, Top 35 ace athletes who became actors.