The Indian cricket team have been one of the most dominant sides in Test cricket especially on home soil since 2013. The Asian giants have dominated top teams including the likes of Australia and England at home for the past 12 years. (Match Highlights | More Cricket News)
The main reason for this success at home was down to the combined partnership of spin duo Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, who tormented visiting sides with their match-winning displays on a consistent basis on home turf.
The likes of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, amongst others have also turned up with the bat when required for Team India against some of the best bowlers in Test cricket history. Matter of fact, not just in the past decade, but India have been a force to be reckoned with in the 21st century.
Overall they have lost just three Test series at home over the last 24 years. However, there have been few exceptions where they have been under the cosh.
Here are few instances -
1) 0-2 vs South Africa, Feb-Mar 2000
Team India's only whitewash at home in the 21st century happened in the February-March 2000 series when South Africa side arrived on the Indian shores for a two-match Test series.
The Proteas won the first Test by four wickets at the Wankhede Stadium as Sachin Tendulkar-led side dominated proceedings with a decent first innings score of 225. In reply, the Proteas were all out for 176. In reply, the hosts were bundled out for 113 as Herschelle Gibbs's 46 gave the visitors a victory.
In the second Test, Proteas notched up 479 to which the hosts could only muster 158 and 250 to lose the match by an innings and 71 runs.
2) 1-2 vs Australia, Oct-Nov 2004/05
Australia toured India for a four-match Test series in 2004 sans the injured Sachin Tendulkar, who was away with a tennis elbow injury. Australia started off the tour with a 217-run win Bengaluru to follow that up with a drawn Test in Chennai.
The Aussies defeated Rahul Dravid-led India by 342 runs despite the arrival of Tendulkar to secure the Border Gavaskar Trophy. India won the final Test in Mumbai by 13 runs.
3) 1-2 vs England, Nov-Dec 2012
Alastair Cook's England defeated MS Dhoni's India in the 2012 series despite losing the first match. The series will be mostly remembered for Cook's 562 runs in the series followed by some attacking display from Kevin Pietersen and other English batters as Dhoni's India suffered a dramatic series loss at home.
4) 0-3 vs New Zealand, Oct-Nov 2024
India lost to New Zealand by 25 runs in the third and final Test in Mumbai resulting in a 0-3 whitewash, their first in a home Test series since South Africa's 2-0 win in 1999-2000. This was also for the first time India have been swept 0-3 in in a home series. Rohit Sharma-led side lost the 1st Test in Bengaluru and were completely overhauled by Mitchell Santner and Ajaz Patel in Pune that handed the visitors the victory. In Mumbai, on a track that was spitting fire, the Kiwis turned up the heat as they defeated India and moreover, jeopardized the hosts' chances of qualifying for the World Test Championship (WTC) final next year
