England's 10 greatest non-Ashes series and where India 2025 ranks

Telegraph

2 days ago

England and India have just completed an epic series that ended 2-2 after the most dramatic of climaxes.
Telegraph Sport ranks where it sits in England's greatest non-Ashes series of all-time.
10. England 1 West Indies 3, 1963
A series of West Indies victories in England have a fine case for inclusion. For social significance, none can match 1950, when West Indies first won in England. For cricketing significance, none can match 1976, when brilliant performances from Michael Holding and Viv Richards marked the start of the West Indies super team. But for sheer compelling cricket, the criterion that covers this list, 1963 stands out.
Garry Sobers – the most complete player that Test cricket has ever known – was in his prime and with the bat was supported by the runs of Rohan Kanhai, Conrad Hunte and Basil Butcher. The side also had a brilliant, varied attack that included the pace of Charlie Griffith and Wes Hall who were supplemented by Lance Gibbs's off spin. At Lord's, Colin Cowdrey came out with a broken arm to secure a draw. England could well have salvaged a 2-2 draw at the Oval, but Fred Trueman was injured early in their defence of 253.
9. South Africa 3 England 2, 1909-10
After losing to South Africa four years earlier, for the first time ever, England resolved to select a stronger side to try and enact revenge. Instead, South Africa completed an encore, again bewitching England were their phalanx of leg-spinners, who all possessed a fine googly. One of these bowlers, Bert Vogler, took 12 wickets in the Test as South Africa won the opening match by 19 runs. It was the first of three classic finishes: Jack Hobbs steered England to a three-wicket win in the third Test, before Aubrey Faulkner, South Africa's great all-rounder, clinched a four-wicket chase – and, with it, the series – in the fourth Test.
8. England 2 South Africa 2, 2003
The series began with England captain Nasser Hussain infamously getting the name of his counterpart, new South Africa skipper Graeme Smith, wrong. Within one Test, Hussain had resigned, and Smith scored the first of consecutive double centuries. When South Africa thrashed England at Lord's to go 1-0 up, there seemed to be a chasm between the sides. But England, now led by Michael Vaughan, fought back, culminating in a classic victory at the Oval to secure a 2-2 series draw, with local boy Graham Thorpe scoring a century on his Test return.
7. England 1 Pakistan 2, 1992
The summer in which England came across reverse swing at its most devastating for the first time. Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis engineered a series of stunning collapses: from 197 for three to 255 all out at Lord's, 292 for two to 320 all out at Headingley, and 182 for three to 207 all out at the Oval.
Yet, even while being bewildered by reverse swing and issuing complaints about their opponents' tactics, England should have taken a 1-0 lead at Lord's, when Wasim and Waqar added an unbroken 46 to take Pakistan to a two-wicket victory. More brilliance from the pair, this time with the ball, secured victory in the decider at the Oval.
6. Sri Lanka 1 England 2, 2000-01
Every other series on this list comprised five Tests. That is no coincidence: five matches give greater scope not just for brilliant performances, but also for tensions to flare up. But when England visited Sri Lanka in 2001, the three Tests contained all the drama of the best five-match series: a cocktail of compelling cricket and often appalling umpiring, which contributed to the spikiness between the sides. Thrashed in the first Test against Murali and Co, England resolved to be more aggressive with the bat thereafter. Their flag-bearer was Thorpe, who was the leading scorer in consecutive four- and three-wicket chases.
5. England 3 West Indies 1, 2000
After 27 years, England were developing a team that they believed could finally win a series against West Indies. The first Test at Edgbaston, when Courtney Walsh took eight for 58 from 40 overs in the match to secure an innings victory, seemed to indicate that England were delusional.
Midway through day two of the second Test at Lord's, England were bowled out for 134, trailing by 133 on first innings and on the brink of going 2-0 down. Out of despair, Andy Caddick then summoned an astonishing spell, taking five for 16 to bowl West Indies out for 54. Against relentless bowling from Walsh and Curtly Ambrose, England clinched a fraught two-wicket victory on the third day. It would be a hinge point in the modern history of both Test sides. With Caddick orchestrating another cataclysmic collapse at Headingley, to bowl West Indies out for 61, England won 3-1.
4. India 1 England 2, 2012-13
A heist that felt extraordinary at the time, but rapidly came to seem outlandish. After being thrashed in the first Test, England produced an astonishing heist in Mumbai. Captain Alastair Cook hit the second of his three Test centuries on the tour; Kevin Pietersen, newly reintegrated into the side, thrashed 186, one of the greatest ever innings by an overseas batsman in India. Almost as astonishingly, England's spin twins, Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann, outbowled India's own spinners, then repeated the feat in Kolkata as England went 2-1 up. A rearguard in Nagpur secured England's best result since the 2005 Ashes, and arguably even earlier. India would win their next 18 series at home, comfortably the best streak of any side in history.
3. West Indies 2 England 2, 1953-54
A series that some consider, with apologies to Bodyline, the most controversial of all. The clash in the Caribbean was billed as the 'world championship of cricket', and saw England complete a stirring comeback from 2-0 down to leave with a draw. Yet, while the games were lit up by a litany of great players – including the three Ws, Clyde Walcott, Everton Weekes and Frank Worrell, and the spin pair Sonny Ramadhin and Alf Valentine – the cricket was just the start. The series featured controversies about umpiring and throwing, and simmering tensions of class and race, as documented in David Woodhouse's riveting book Who Only Cricket Know. The only snag was that none of the individual matches were particularly close.
2. England 2 India 2, 2025
In the months before visiting England, India had lost Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin, creating fears that the side, and the spectacle, would be diminished. Instead, India's five Tests this summer have showed the format's continued capacity for regeneration. Shubman Gill swiftly earned comparisons with Don Bradman, never mind Kohli. He was merely one of a brilliant cast of characters to light up a full 25 days of cricket, alongside his rival captain Ben Stokes, the ebullient pair of No 5s, Rishabh Pant and Harry Brook, and the unique brilliance of Jasprit Bumrah.
The teams served up four matches which produced fraught on-field moments and gripping denouements. Ultimately, the series got the ending it deserved: the indefatigable Mohammed Siraj yorking Gus Atkinson to secure a six-run win and a 2-2 draw.
1. England 2 South Africa 1, 1998
A victory that remains oddly under-appreciated in English cricketing memory, perhaps because it runs contrary to the lazy popular memory of the 1990s. Yet consider the quality of the side that South Africa possessed. With a pace attack of prime Allan Donald and Shaun Pollock and a deep batting line-up, South Africa recorded the best win-loss ratio of any Test side in the 1990s.
After cruising to a 1-0 win at Lord's, South Africa had 171 overs to bowl England out at Old Trafford. Yet Mike Atherton, Alex Stewart and Robert Croft helped England cling on, with the last pair surviving for 5.1 overs to salvage a draw.
The last two Tests were even better. On both occasions, England overcame narrow first-innings deficits to win. At Trent Bridge, Atherton came through a pulsating duel with Donald to orchestrate a chase of 247. Then, in the decider at Headingley, Darren Gough bowled England to a 23-run win on his home ground, in a series that went down to the very final morning. So did this year's clash with India, of course – but the 1998 series was further elevated because both sides could win the series on the final day.