In Pictures: West Indies in India

Sportsmanship has always been second nature to the West Indians and they gave Sachin Tendulkar a touching guard of honour when that colossus walked out to bat in his retirement Test at his home ground, the Wankhede Stadium, in November 2013.

India won the 2011-12 series 2-0, with the third and last match ending in a draw in Mumbai with the scores level, as not all the wickets were lost, a rare occurrence indeed. Ravichandran Ashwin scored his maiden Test hundred in the match.

It had been 2-0 in 2002-03 too with Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh and Virender Sehwag performing to potential. Harbhajan picked up 20 wickets.

The trophy was shared in 1994-95, Mohammad Azharuddin and Courtney Walsh being the captains. The West Indian pace attack posed quite a few problems in the series.

The highlight of the 1987-88 series was the sensational debut of leg-spinner Narendra Hirwani. The leggie bagged 16 wickets and sent the Caribbeans nosediving to defeat in Madras. India drew the series 1-1 in what was Ravi Shastri’s lone Test as captain. Here Kapil Dev snaffles a fatal edge from the West Indies captain Viv Richards in the second innings.

Well, well, well... To get some respite from opening, Sunil Gavaskar dropped down the order to No. 4 in the sixth and final Test of the 1983-84 series in Madras. But he had to come in with India tottering at zero for two, prompting the inimitable Viv Richards to remark, “Maan, it doesn’t matter where you come in to bat, the score is still zero!” But Gavaskar being Gavaskar repaired the damage and was 149 not out at the end of the fourth day when the Caribbean ’keeper Jeff Dujon asked him for his bat. And Sunny gladly gave it. Gavaskar finished on 236 not out, which remained India’s highest individual Test score for 17 years. It was also Gavaskar’s 30th Test hundred, bettering Don Bradman’s 29 and giving the Bombay opener the distinction of scoring the most number of Test hundreds at that time.

Kapil Dev struck his first Test hundred just three months after making his debut in Pakistan. Kallicharran’s West Indians had come here in 1978-79, the team bereft of stars who were with Kerry Packer. But they were quite competitive and Kapil showed his batting prowess with an unbeaten 126 in Delhi. He also picked up 17 wickets in the series.

India’s 1975 Madras Test match against Clive Lloyd’s West Indians will forever be known as the Viswanath Test. Coming in at 24 for two on the opening morning, the diminutive Karnataka batsman had to counter the seriously quick Andy Roberts, the West Indian in only his fifth Test but performing like a seasoned campaigner. Viswanath met fire with fire and on seeing some of his imperious strokes, Roberts deliberately cut down his pace to conserve energy while bowling to the little man. Viswanath was stranded on 97 when the Indian innings ended and the Caribbeans applauded him to the man.

Bishan Singh Bedi, Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, Anshuman Gaekwad and Gundappa Viswanath sprint to the pavilion after vanquishing the West Indians in Calcutta in the 1974-75 series. After being 2-0 down in the series, India pulled one back here before levelling 2-2 in the ‘Viswanath Test’ in Madras. Vishy had scores of 52 and 139 in Calcutta.

Farokh Engineer had flair and flamboyance in plenty, both as a wicketkeeper and as a batsman. And he displayed his batting wares in no uncertain manner on the first day of the 1966-67 Madras Test against Gary Sobers’ West Indians. Opening the Indian first innings with Dilip Sardesai, Engineer powered to 94 before lunch, taming the speed demons, Wesley Hall and Charlie Griffith. Needless to say, Sardesai was just an appreciative spectator.

Hemu Adhikari, who was India’s captain in the fifth and final Test in Delhi in the 1958-59 series, exchanges pleasantries with the President, Rajendra Prasad. On the far side is the Caribbean skipper Jerry Alexander. In fact, Adhikari’s day in the sun had come some 10 years earlier, when he became the first Indian to score a Test century against the West Indies, in the very first Test between the teams, in the 1948-49 series in Delhi.

Rohan Kanhai becomes leg-spinner Subash Gupte’s 100th Test victim as this audacious shot from him was well caught by Pankaj Roy in the first Test of the 1958-59 series. Gupte, full of wile and guile, finished with 149 Test wickets in his career. His Caribbean connection also continued as he married a damsel from those isles and settled down there.

Lala Amarnath leads the Indian team out in its very first Test against the West Indies in Delhi in November 1948. This was also the first Test in Delhi and the first in India since the 1933-34 season. Though four West Indians — Clyde Walcott, Gerry Gomez, Everton Weekes and Robert Christiani — plundered hundreds in the first innings, India emerged with a creditable draw.

Chakravarthy Rajagopalachari, India’s Governor General, gets to know Chandu Sarwate, Lala Amarnath and Commandur Rangachari before the first Test against the West Indies in 1948. Paceman Rangachari, a policeman from Madras, became the first Indian bowler to pick up five wickets against the West Indies.