India's men's national cricket team played its first international match on 25 June 1932 in a Lord'sTest against England becoming the sixth team to be granted Test cricket status. India had to wait until 1952, approximately twenty years to its first Test victory. In its first fifty years of international cricket, success was limited, with only 35 wins in 196 Tests.[10] The team, however, gained strength in the 1970s with the emergence of the Indian spin quartet, and players like Sunil Gavaskar, Gundappa Viswanath, and Kapil Dev. In men's limited-overs cricket, India made its ODI debut against England in 1974 and T20I debut against South Africa in 2006.
They have won the Asia Cup eight times, in 1984, 1988, 1990–91, 1995, 2010, 2016, 2018, 2023, while finishing runners-up thrice (1997, 2004, 2008). India also won a gold medal in 2022 Asian Games. Other achievements include winning the ICC Test Championship Mace five times and the ICC ODI Championship Shield once. As of December 2023, the team is ranked first (Tests, ODIs and T20Is) in the ICC rankings.[12] With such success, it is one of the most successful teams in international cricket.[13]