Which Indian has finished on the winning side the maximum times in Test matches (30 April 2001)

Coming into the Indian tour, Steve Waugh had won 61 Tests as a player, the most by any contemporary figure in the game, and only second to Viv Richards' 63 in the all time list. Auatralia's 10 wicket hiding of India in the first Test in Mumbai lifted the figure to 62 before successive defeats at Kolkata and Chennai nixed his chances of surpassing Richards' achievement. But only for the moment. The odds that Waugh will go clear of Viv during the Ashes series later this summer must be overwhelmingly favourable. That provokes an intriguing corollary: Which Indian has taken part in the most number of Test match victories?

Mohd. Azharuddin, at the helm during the tremendously successful run in the early 1990s - when India won nine successive Tests at home - has been involved in 22 wins, 14 as captain. Sunil Gavaskar is slightly ahead with 23 but the leader of the pack is Kapil Dev who finished on the winning side 24 times in a Test career encompassing 131 appearances. Kapil is however likely to be dispossessed of the distinction very soon with Sachin Tendulkar veritably snapping at his heels. Tendulkar had to tarry a while for his maiden win against Sri Lanka in the one-off Test at Chandigarh in 1990/91, which was his 11th match and also his first at home. When India won the decider at Chennai last month against Australia, it marked his 22nd victory in 82 contests, bringing him abreast of Azhar. Where will Sachin overtake Kaps: in Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, South Africa or back home against England at the tailend of the year? A moot point indeed.

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