ICC Member India

Indian Cricket

In India Cricket is governed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), it is a full member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) with Test, One Day International (ODI) and Twenty20 International (T20I) status. The Indian cricket team, also known as Team India and Men in Blue, represents India in international cricket.

* India, gained the test status in 1932 and remained a punching bag for bigger teams for almost 50 years thereafter.

Introduction
Although cricket was introduced to India by European merchant sailors in the 18th century, and the first cricket club in India was established in Calcutta in 1792, India's national cricket team did not play its first Test match until 25 June 1932 at Lord's, becoming the sixth team to be granted Test cricket status. In its first fifty years of international cricket, India was one of the weaker teams, winning only 35 of the first 196 Test matches it played. The team, however, gained strength in the 1970s with the emergence of players such as batsmen Sunil Gavaskar and Gundappa Viswanath, all-rounder Kapil Dev and the Indian spin quartet.

Domestic Cricket

The premier domestic competition in India is the Ranji Trophy, founded in 1934, which has consisted of two leagues since 2002-03. It is the main first-class tournament, with teams largely from various states contesting the prize. The Duleep Trophy is also first-class, originally conceived to combat the predictability of the Ranji, while the Irani Trophy is held once a year, featuring a match between the Ranji champions and Rest of India. The Vijay Hazare and Deodhar Trophies are both one-day tournaments, while the Challenger Series comprises the top 36 players in India. The Indian Premier League (IPL) quickly established itself as the domestic tournament to play in for all of the world's leading cricketers, and aspiring young Indians. Rajasthan Royals were inaugural winners in 2008.

International Cricket

India's triumph in the 1983 ICC Cricket World Cup is still talked about today. Its next success in a global tournament came in 2002 in the ICC Champions Trophy, when it was joint winners with Sri Lanka. Heavy rain forced the two finalists to abandon the game - the first such instance of a world cricket trophy being shared. India's cricketers were also heavily feted in 2007 when they won the first ICC World Twenty20 in their own right. They faced close rivals Pakistan in the final in a game watched by a global audience of 400 million people. Under Mahendra Singh Dhoni, India repeated the feat achieved in 1983, by winning the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 at home in Mumbai beating co-hosts Sri Lanka in the final, leading to wide celebrations across the country. India faced Sri Lanka again in the final of the ICC World Twenty20 in Bangladesh in 2014, where it lost by six wickets. Last year, India won the Champions Trophy in 2013 after beating England by five runs in a rain-truncated game.

Ranking

As of 12 July 2016, India is ranked 2nd in Tests, 3rd in ODIs and 2nd in Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) by the ICC. Virat Kohli is the current captain of the team in Tests while MS  Dhoni is the ODI & T20I captain.