India has slowly but steady involved in great international side since advancing to the status of Test playing nation. With time there are many cricket tournaments that have evolved in the country. And India has participated in tournaments like Cricket World Cup, ICC Champions Trophy and Asia Cup. The first two cricket World Cups that India participated in were complete disasters as they failed to qualify to the second round. But the 1983 World Cup campaign for India turned out to be a joy ride as they completely surprised the world and won the championship, to claim the Prudential Cricket World Cup for the first time, captained by Kapil Dev.
West Indies and India played their group rounds with complete dominance and cruised into the next rounds. Before the start of the tourney Indian team was considered the underdogs and not many people, including fans and experts did not give the team much chance. Their win against West Indies was categorized as similar to Zimbabwe`s win over Australia in the same World Cup. They were, in fact, quoted as having odds of 66 to 1 before the beginning of the tournament.
After the 1983 World Cup the performance by the Indian Team was rather consistent. In the 1987 World Cup, the Indian Team advanced to the semis and was the favourites to win the championship. Same happened for 1996 World Cup as well. Both times they suffered upset defeats in the semi-finals. The team that played 1999 World Cup was not so strong; hence could not get pass the Super Six stage. However they impressed all in the 2003 Cup, only losing two games (both against reigning champions Australia) and advancing to the finals before taking a loss. Indian Team however, following a dismal show in the 2007 World Cup campaign, won the 2011 World Cup with bunch of young and talented players.
In the year 1984, after their emphatic World Cup victory, India sustained its spanking dominance over ODI Cricket with a comprehensive win over arch-rivals Pakistan in the final. With time they started to win against all their Asian rivals, winning the 1984 Asia Cup with a victory over Sri Lanka in the finals. In 1990, India won its third consecutive Asia Cup with a victory over Sri Lanka. The winning streak of the Indian Team continued in 1995, again beating Sri Lanka in the final. However, in 1997, a positive Sri Lanka riding on their first ever World Cup triumph swept past a fragile Indian team, breaking the 4-tournament winning streak. India`s presentation of form dipped lower from there, with India not advancing to the finals in 2000 and coming runners-up against Sri Lanka in 2004.
Indian Team has also participated in the three Australian Cups, but to no avail. They have not won this championship anytime, but have come runners-up twice (1986 and 1994).
In the ICC Championship they have a mixed result. They were semi finalists in the 1998 editions and runners up the 2000, but they were the joint winners, along with Sri Lanka for the 2002 edition. Indians were eliminated from the first rounds of the 2004 ICC Champions Trophy.
The defining moments of Indian Team came when they won the 2007 ICC T20 Competition, and also won the 2009 Asian Cup under the leadership of Mahendra Singh Dhoni. The icing on the cake was the triumph in 2011 ICC World Cup.
