August 24, 1971—a historic day for Indian cricket. It was the first time Team India won a match in England. By winning the Test match at The Oval, Ajit Wadekar and his boys concluded England's long-standing undefeated streak.

The home team under Ray Illingworth's captaincy tried hard to defend the target of 173 runs. Until the last moment of the game, the captain himself bowled tightly and maintained challenging field sets on a slow, turning track. To chase down the target, India had a day and a half in their hand. Despite losing multiple top-order batters early in the second innings, they were able to write history in England.

Before the second innings, England was the frontrunner to win the competition, as they registered 355 runs on the scoreboard batting first. Alan Knott scored 90, and eighty-plus scores from John Jameson and Richard Hutton worked as the primary catalyst for the England cricket team. India, in their first innings, scored only 284 and allowed the host to maintain a lead. Farokh Engineer and Dilip Sardesai bagged half-centuries during this phase of the match.

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England fought bravely till the end

The bowling department of India shifted the momentum of the match in the second innings when England bowled out for only 101 runs. Bhagwath Chandrasekhar emerged as the wrecker-in-chief by taking 6 wickets in the second innings to go with the first innings' 2 wickets. During the decisive essay of the game, England quickly got the wickets of Sunil Gavaskar and Ashok Mankad. Their economical bowling made India's task harder to get the target total.

Ajit Wadekar (45) and Dilip Sardesai (40) remained firm on the tricky surface and helped India to overcome the early setbacks. Gundappa Viswanath and Farokh Engineer did the rest of the job to confirm India's first win on English soil. 

So far, only 3 Indian captains have encrypted their names in history for winning the Test series against England (ENG vs IND) in England. Ajit Wadekar, Kapil Dev, and Rahul Dravid guided Team India to win the Test series in England. India, under a young captain in Shubman Gill, is ready to take on the host nation in another tour. Last time, when Rahul Dravid was the captain, India emerged as the winning side there. Since then, no captains have led Team India to the heroic. If Shubman and his boys are able to win the 5-match series, their names will be written in golden letters. 

India's tour of England, 1971:

India won the 3-match series by 1-0; Ajit Wadekar was the skipper. 

1st Test:

• ENG: 304 & 191

•IND: (Target 183) 313 & 145/8

Bishan Bedi was at the top of his game. After taking 4 wickets in the first innings, he took another 2 in the second phase and completed a 5-wicket haul in a Test match. Ray Illingworth's England was the clear favorite to win the match and the series, but the Indians were determined to offer them an unexpected setback. While John Snow and Alan Knott scored 73 and 63, respectively, Ajit Wadekar and Gundappa Viswanath replied with 85- and 68-run innings, respectively. In the second innings, England bundled before the two hundred mark, and the match ended in a draw in London, at Lord's. 

2nd Test:

• ENG: 386 & 245/3d

• IND: (Target: 420) 212 & 65/3

This match at Old Trafford was mostly dominated by the batters of England, and India defended well to avoid a possible defeat. England got a couple of centurions in the game as Ray Illingworth and Brian Luckhurst. Sunil Gavaskar and Eknath Solkar bagged fifty-plus scores individually. Gavaskar played a match-saving knock in the second innings as well. 

3rd Test:

• ENG: 355 & 101

• IND: (Target: 173) 284 & 174/6

India created history in The Oval. Under Ajit Wadekar's leadership, team India won its first-ever Test series in England. Bhagwath Chandrasekhar's 6-wicket spell in the second innings was match-turning, and Dilip Sardesai was consistent with the bat. In the second and decisive innings, Dilip and Ajit secured the historic win. 

India's tour of England, 1986:

India won the series by 2-0, Kapil Dev was the captain

1st Test:

• ENG: 294 & 180

• IND: (Target: 134) 341 & 136/5

A man-of-the-match performance by Captain Kapil Dev. He played an unbeaten 23 off 10 balls in the second innings to secure a win in London. An absolute neck-and-neck match. Graham Gooch from England and Dilip Vengsarkar scored centuries; with the ball, Chetan Sharma took a fifer in the first innings, and Kapil Dev claimed 4 in the next essay. England's Graham Dilley earned 6 wickets in total from the match. 

2nd Test:

• IND: 272 & 237

• ENG: (Target: 408) 102 & 128

Top-notch batting and bowling performance by India. England was totally out of the game. Dilip Vengsarkar was elected as the best player of the match for his 61 and 102* run innings. Roger Binny had the best bowling figure in the match: 5/40 (13 overs) in the first innings, and in the next innings it was Maninder Singh with 4/26 (16.3). 

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3rd Test:

ENG: 390 & 235

IND: (Target: 236): 390 & 174/5

The high-scoring match ended in a draw, though India had already pocketed the series through previous wins. In this match Chetan Sharma took a total of 10 wickets, and England's Mike Gatting played an unbeaten 183-run knock. Despite multiple bowling brilliances from both ends, the crowd in Edgbaston witnessed a run galore. 

India's tour of England, 2007: 

India won the series by 1-0, Rahul Dravid was the captain.

1st Test: 

ENG: 298 & 282

IND: (Target:380) 201 & 282/9

The match got more intense in the second innings. Kevin Pietersen scored 134 and RP Singh replied with a 5-wicket haul. MS Dhoni and Dinesh Karthik's solid last day batting concluded the match in a draw in Lord's. Jamesh Anderson also took 5 scalps, in the match during the first innings. 

2nd Test:

ENG: 198 & 355

IND: (T:73): 481 & 73/3

Zaheer Khan thrived in Nottingham in this match, where he claimed a total of 9 wickets and concealed the victory of India. Because of him and Anil Kumble's 3-wicket spell, England batters never got the desired opportunity to pile ot good amount of runs. With the bat, Sachin Tendulkar (91) and Sourav Ganguly (79) saw the oppertunity and utilised it for a massive lead. England in the second innings tried hard with Michael Vaughan's 124, but they set a target of 73 only for India to win the match. 

3rd Match:

IND: 664 & 180/6d

ENG: (Target: 500) 345 & 369/6

One of the most entertaining match in this list. Anil Kumble produced unbelievable 110* run innings in the first innings. And when he went to bowl, claimed a total of 5 scalps. For England, James Anderson took 6 in total and Kevin Pietersen with his 101-run Innings tried to flip the script, but the match ended in a draw.