Background
With South Africa out of Test cricket, England was arguably the best cricket team in the world at this point of time. Earlier in the summer, they had fortuitously managed to defeat Pakistan 1–0 but coming into the series England had gone 24 Tests without defeat. They were to extend it to a record 26 Test matches before losing the third Test.
India had not won a Test abroad till 1968 and had had no success in their previous six Test tours of England. However, under the new captain Ajit Wadekar, India defeated West Indies in an away series in early 1971. The victory in that series was built around the batting of Sunil Gavaskar and Dilip Sardesai who scored 774 and 642 runs respectively. Chandrasekhar had been a controversial omission from the West Indies series. Chief Selector Vijay Merchant called his inclusion for the tour of England "a calculated gamble".
Read more about this topic: Indian Cricket Team In England In 1971
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