1984-85 - England vs. India - Classic Series - Test & ODI
Note: Test and ODI Advanced Player cards are included in this Classic Series Set. 61 cards are included - 28 Test cards and 33 ODI cards.
The 1984-85 England Tour of India stands out for a range of reasons. From a cricketing perspective it was a renassaince for the England team, and Mike Gatting in particular who broke his 50+ match drough for a maiden century.
Politically it was a time of turmoil with the team's arrival coinciding with the assination of M Ghandi, and then following a cocktail party attended by the team at the British High Commission, the Assistant High Commissioner was murdered hours after the team departed.
Against this backdrop the Team started with a wobbly few Tour matches, and a poor showing in the first Test. Then miraculously, they recovered to win the series 2-1.
This set includes both the Test and the ODI cards for all players, allowing you re replay the International Fixtures on the Tour which were, strangely when seen from today's perspective, played in an interchageable way.
The itinerary for the team was as follows:
28 Nov-3 Dec 84 - 1st Test – Bombay
India won by 8 wickets
5 Dec 84 - 1st ODI – Pune
England won by 4 wickets (with 10 balls remaining)
12-17 Dec 84 - 2nd Test – Delhi
England won by 8 wickets
27 Dec 84 - 2nd ODI - Cuttack
England won by 1 run (revised target)
31 Dec 84-5 Jan 85 - 3rd Test – Calcutta
Match Drawn
13-18 Jan 85 - 4th Test – Madras
England won by 9 wickets
20 Jan 85 - 3rd ODI – Bangalore
England won by 3 wickets (with 6 balls remaining)
23 Jan 85 - 4th ODI – Nagpur
India won by 3 wickets (with 14 balls remaining)
27 Jan 85 - 5th ODI – Chandigarh
England won by 7 runs
31 Jan-5 Feb 85 - 5th Test – Kanpur
Match Drawn
This set includes both Test and ODI Advanced Player Cards for those who took part in this series.
The Test Squads:
England: AJ Lamb, CS Cowdrey, DI Gower, G Fowler, MW Gatting, NA Foster, NG Cowans, PH Edmonds, PI Pocock, PR Downton, RM Ellison, RT Robinson
India: AD Gaekwad, AO Malhotra, C Sharma, DB Vengsarkar, G Sharma, K Srikkanth, L Sivaramakrishnan, M Amarnath, M Azharuddin, M Prabhakar, N Kapil Dev, NS Yadav, RJ Shastri, SM Gavaskar, SM Patil, SMH Kirmani
The ODI Squads:
England: AJ Lamb, BN French, CS Cowdrey, DI Gower, G Fowler, JP Agnew, MD Moxon, MW Gatting, NA Foster, NG Cowans, PH Edmonds, PR Downton, RM Ellison, RT Robinson, VJ Marks
India: AK Patel, C Sharma, DB Vengsarkar, K Srikkanth, KS More, LS Rajput, M Amarnath, M Azharuddin, M Prabhakar, N Kapil Dev, RJ Shastri, RMH Binny, RS Ghai, S Viswanath, SM Gavaskar, SM Patil, TAP Sekhar, Yashpal Sharma
This set of Advanced Player Cards is available as a downloadable PDF immediately after purchase.
There is a wealth of information on this fascinating series. The best, by far, is Vic Marks' excellent book, Marks Out of XI, which contains a full account of the series, but more importantly the context of what was going on around the team and their response.
- Marks Out of XI, Vic Marks, 1985, Unwin and Allen
- An article by Marks in the Guardian, 2012, which brings forth some of the anecdotes of the Tour
- The Wisden Almanack Summary of the Tour and Various Match Reports and the scorecards
Image Source: Norman Cowans in full flight. Detail from plate in personal copy of Marks Out Of XI,.