Located in the busy city of Leeds is the historic Headingley Cricket Ground, popular among the locals as “the home of Yorkshire cricket”. And for several reasons, the venue remains close to heart of the Indian cricket fans.
On July 13, 1974, India made their ODI debut here, at Headingley. Nearly a year after, they won their first ever World Cup match here against East Africa.
Sachin Tendulkar was signed by the Yorkshire Cricket Club, a record 33 time County Championship Winner, as their first-ever overseas player after removing the stringent rule in 1992.
India might not have a good test record in England, but a fact to note is that they haven’t lost a single test match at Headingley in the past 52 years.
Virat Kohli and company’s next battle will be here at Headingley, on the home turf of their opposition captain Joe Root. Let us have a look at the five pre-twenty-first century India-England test matches at Headingley.
1952: Vijays excellent performances go in vain as India lost its debut match at this venue
This match was memorable for several reasons, arguably the top reason being the debut of Fred Trueman, one of the all-time greats of the sport.
This match also saw the maiden century of Vijay Manjrekar, and the special 222 run stand between the two Vijays, Vijay Hazare and Vijay Manjrekar.
Brief Scores:
India 293 (Vijay Hazare 89, Vijay Manjrekar 133; Fred Trueman 3/89, Jim Laker 4/39) & 165 (Vijay Hazare 56, Dattu Phadkar 64; Fred Trueman 4/27, Roly Jenkins 4/50) lost to England 334 (Tom Graveney 71, Allan Watkins 48, Godfrey Evans 66; Ghulam Ahmed 5/100) & 128 for 3 (Reg Simpson 51) by seven wickets
1959: England destroy India inside 3 days
Most Indians have forgotten this match and rightly so, as India stumbled in the beginning of the match and never recovered from it.
Brief scores
India 161 (Fred Trueman 3/30, Harold Rhodes 4/50) & 149 (Chandu Borde 41; John Mortimore 3/36, Brian Close 4/35) lost to England 483 for 8 dec (Gilbert Parkhouse 78, Geoff Pullar 75, Colin Cowdrey 160, Ken Barrington 80; Subhash Gupte 4/111) by an innings and 173 runs
1967: England defeat India, Geoffrey Boycott “bores” everyone
It was a poor batting display by India which eventually cost them the match, though Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi batted with grit.England opener Geoff Boycott batted for 9 hours, 33 mins & 555 balls . He was dropped for the next Test match by the selectors for batting too slowly.
Brief scores
England 550 for 4 dec (Geoffrey Boycott 246*, Ken Barrington 93, Tom Graveney 59, Basil D’Oliveria 109) & 126 for 4 (Ken Barrington 46; Bhagwath Chandrasekhar 3/50) beat India 164 (Farokh Engineer 42, MAK Pataudi 64; Robin Hobbs 3/45, Ray Illingworth 3/31) & 510 (Farokh Engineer 87, Ajit Wadekar 91, Hanumant Singh 73, MAK Pataudi 148) by six wickets
1979: Leeds’ weather spoils play
This test ended in a draw as rain washed off the second and third day and most of the first day.
England 270 (Ian Botham 137; Kapil Dev 3/84) drew with India 223 for 6 (Sunil Gavaskar 78, Yashpal Sharma 40, Dilip Vengsarkar 65*)
1986: Dilip Vengsarkar leads India to a series win
India won their second-ever test series in England by winning this test. Dilip Vengsarkar’s gritty batting remains the highlight of this match as the lead of 2-0 after winning this epic match meant that the Kapil Dev lead team India had won the series.
Brief scores
India 272 (Dilip Vengsarkar 61; Graham Dilley 3/54, Derek Pringle 3/47) & 237 (Dilip Vengsarkar 102*; John Lever 4/64, Derek Pringle 4/73) beat England 102 (Madan Lal 3/18, Roger Binny 5/40) & 128 (Maninder Singh 4/26) by 279 runs
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