The captain was blissfully asleep on the masseur’s table when he was woken up with the words: “You have won. They want you on the balcony!”

What Ajit Wadekar and his team achieved in 1971 has no parallels in cricketing history. There isn’t another instance of a team winning two successive series on foreign soil without a single fast bowler in the playing XI.

Wadekar was named captain for the tour of the West Indies in early 1971, after Vijay Merchant, the Chairman of Selectors, broke a 2-2 deadlock by exercising his casting vote in the Mumbaikar’s favour. That brought an end to Pataudi’s decade-old reign at the helm. India went on to create history in the Caribbean and were confidence personified when the subsequent series against England commenced at Lord’s. It helped that the side included a fair number of youngsters who had been born and brought up in an independent country. They considered themselves inferior to no one.

The mood in the dressing-room was reflected in the manner in which the visitors went for a target of 183 with only four hours’ play left, despite predictions of a shower. India were eight down, and the target 38 runs away, when the showers started, and both sides claimed a moral victory. The highlight of the drawn second Test at Manchester, as far as India were concerned, was Sunil Gavaskar’s 57 in the first innings. The man who had scored 774 runs in his maiden Test series in the Caribbean just weeks previously would rate the 57 as his best innings ever.

Englandhad the better of the third Test at the Oval before B.S. Chandrasekhar turned the game on its head with a second-innings spell of six for 38. India needed 173 to win and prevailed by four wickets. Soon after Abid Ali had scored the winning runs, Wadekar jumped off the masseur’s table, rubbed his eyes, wore his blazer, and beheld the most spectacular sight that an Indian captain had witnessed on English soil until that point – hordes of Indian fans on the ground, cheering him and his men. The fact that India had beaten England and the West Indies, and England had beaten Australia in the recent past, prompted many to christen the Indians as ‘World Champions.’ This was unprecedented in Indian cricket history.

For the first time in history, India started the subsequent series against England at home in 1972-73 as favourites. In what also was a first of sorts, India lived up to the billing by taking the series 2-1. Chandrasekhar had another fruitful series, taking 35 wickets in five Tests. The Indians displayed pluck to first level, and then win, the series after the loss in the first Test at Delhi.

The squad that went to England in 1974 was far more experienced than the one of 1971, but the hosts were better prepared. The fact that the matches were played in the colder, first half of the English summer made it difficult for the Indian spinners to grip the ball, and they were further handicapped by the restriction imposed on the number of fielders that could be placed on the leg-side (not more than six). To say that India were routed would be an understatement. The second Test at Lord’s was Indian cricket’s nadir - the side was bowled out for 42. The team was also beset by controversies off the field. Wadekar announced his retirement after the series and Pataudi was recalled to put things back on track.

Bishan Singh Bedi was in charge when Tony Greig brought over an England team in 1976-77. That tour was a landmark as it was England’s first visit to India with a full-strength side. Greig was the first reigning England captain since Jardine in 1933-34 to travel to India with the side. He proceeded to lead from the front, battling fever to score a match-winning hundred in the second Test at Kolkata. The England batsmen neutralised the spinners while the English bowlers gave the hosts’ batsmen a tough time. England won 3-1, thus making Greig the first England captain since Jardine to win a Test series on Indian soil.

India’s ‘first Test blues’ continued on the 1979 tour of England, and another defeat seemed imminent when they were skittled out for 96 in the first innings of the second Test at Lord’s. However, Gundappa Viswanath and Dilip Vengsarkar bailed them out with hundreds. The third Test was also drawn and England went all out for a win in the fourth, challenging India to score 438 in a day-and-a-bit.

Mike Brearley, England’s captain, was a canny and meticulous character, but he hadn’t accounted for India’s penchant for excelling when confronted with a fourth-innings chase. India had successfully pursued a record target of 403 against the West Indies not very long ago. At the Oval in 1979, one of the architects of that win almost did an encore. Sunil Gavaskar was outstanding in an innings of 221. India crossed 350 with only one wicket down, but the visitors were let down by their inexperience in limited-overs cricket. England struck back with a combination of gamesmanship and timely wickets, and India were 429 for eight at the close, nine short of what would have been a historic triumph.

The world’s premier all-rounder, who had done well in the 1979 series, was at his best in the one-off Golden Jubilee Test, organised to commemorate fifty years of the BCCI. The match, played at Mumbai in February 1980, was dominated by Ian Botham. He became the first player to score a hundred and take ten wickets in the same game. While England won the Test, Indian skipper Gundappa Viswanath endeared himself to the romantics by recalling Bob Taylor after the latter had been declared out caught behind. Viswanath reckoned that the batsman hadn’t got an outside-edge, and so he withdrew his team’s appeal.

The team met again in the same city in 1981 in what was the first Test of a six-match series. Sunil Gavaskar, and not Viswanath, was in charge, and he led India to victory in a low-scoring game. The next five Tests produced some listless cricket, and consequently, draws.

Englandavenged the loss with a 1-0 win at home in the summer of 1982. India went down fighting in the first Test at Lord’s, thanks to Vengsarkar’s 157 and Kapil Dev’s 89. The next two Tests were drawn, the highlights being Sandeep Patil’s hundred in the second game at Manchester and superlative bowling and batting by rival all-rounders Ian Botham and Kapil Dev.

India’s away performances had improved in the years since 1971, with the loss in 1974 being seen as an aberration. The team had been formidable at home, with only the West Indies (1974-75 and 1983-84) and England (1976-77) having won a series on Indian shores. However, the 1984-85 series against David Gower’s team was a disturbing throwback to the dark days of the 1950s.

Indiastarted well, winning the first Test at Mumbai, with leg-spinner L. Sivaramakrishnan taking 12 for 181, but things went awry subsequently. Simply put, England got the basics right and the Indians did not. The hosts were guilty of not taking the opposition seriously in the second Test at Delhi and tumbled to 235 all out from 128 for two on the fifth day. England, who had resigned themselves to a draw, had most of the second half of the day to score a little over a hundred to win, which they duly did. A tedious draw in Kolkata later, paceman Neil Foster bagged eleven wickets in the fourth Test at Chennai. He was complemented by Graeme Fowler and Mike Gatting, both of whom scored double hundreds. England won comprehensively and took the series 2-1.

The one consistent feature of the Indians throughout the series was their inconsistency. The batsmen clicked when the bowlers did not, and vice versa, and the hosts therefore had only themselves to blame for theirs was a far more experienced outfit. It was a reversal of 1971, in a way. The consolation for the hosts, Sivaramakrishnan apart, was the performances of two other young guns. Ravi Shastri enhanced his reputation as an all-rounder with two hundreds and Mohammed Azharuddin, who debuted in the third Test at Kolkata, scored a hundred in each of his first three Tests.

Devendra Prabhudesai is Manager – Media Relations and Corporate Affairs – BCCI. He has also written five books, including ‘SMG – a biography of Sunil Gavaskar,’ and ‘The Nice Guy Who Finished First, a biography of Rahul Dravid.’