India

The British first brought cricket to India in the early 1700s, with the first cricket match played in 1721. It was played and adopted by Kolis of Gujarat .The East India Company tried to manage the Kolis through cricket and were successful. In 1848, the Parsi community in Mumbai formed the Oriental Cricket Club, the first cricket club to be established by Indians. After slow beginnings, the Europeans eventually invited the Parsis to play a match in 1877. By 1912, the Parsis, Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims of Bombay played a quadrangular tournament with the Europeans every year. In the early 1900s, some Indians went on to play for the England cricket team. Some of these, such as Ranjitsinhji and Duleepsinhji were greatly appreciated by the British and their names went on to be used for the Ranji Trophy and Duleep Trophy – two major first-class tournaments in India. In 1911, an Indian men's cricket team, captained by Bhupinder Singh of Patiala, went on their first official tour of the British Isles, but only played English county teams and not the England cricket team.

India was invited to the International Cricket Council in 1926, and made their debut as a Test-playing nation in England in 1932, led by C. K. Nayudu, who was considered the best Indian batsman at the time. The one-off Test match between the two teams was played at Lord's in London. The team was not strong in their batting at this point and went on to lose by 158 runs. India hosted its first men's Test cricket series in 1933 when England toured India. The visitors won the three-Test series 2–0 with the matches held at Bombay (now Mumbai), Calcutta (now Kolkata) and Madras (now Chennai). The Indian team continued to improve throughout the 1930s and 1940s but did not achieve an international victory during this period. In the early 1940s, India did not play any men's Test cricket due to World War II. The team's first series as an independent country was in late 1947 against Don Bradman's Australia. It was also the first Test series India played which was not against England. Australia men's cricket team won the five-match series 4–0, with Bradman tormenting the Indian bowling in his final Australian summer. India subsequently played their first Test series at home not against England, but against the West Indies in 1948. West Indies won the five-Test series 1–0. India recorded their first Test victory, in their 24th match, against England at Madras in 1952.