Former Australian Coach and player Justin Langer once said to "never underestimate the Indians."
The statement is valid in all its senses. The Indian cricket team has had many historic test wins, all of which came when the odds were stacked against them.
The Indian team has registered big Test wins against significant opposition like Australia, England and the all-mighty West Indies both home and abroad.
Major test series wins have come against Australia and England, leaving them high and dry after the series.
But what are the top five?
The recent test series win came in the 2020-21 Australian summer, where the Indian team ripped apart Australia, bamboozling them after a historic run chase in the fourth Test at the Gabba.
The Indian team clinched the series 2-1 after a massive setback where they were rolled for just 36 in the first Test, played in Adelaide. The game at one point looked as if it would set the tone for the summer, particularly when Indian captain Virat Kohli and quick bowler Mohammad Shami were ruled out of the following Test due to paternity leave and injury respectively.
In the absence of Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane was the stand-in captain. He led the young and experienced bunch of players to the most significant Test series win in the nation's history.
The tone was set after the second test match in Melbourne, where Rahane hit a magnificent century against the odds. He had support from bowlers Jasprit Bumrah, Ravichandran Ashwin and young Mohammad Siraj, who ripped apart the Australian batting line-up in both innings for a score of 200, leading the Indian team to an eight-wicket win.
After levelling the series at one Test a piece, the Indian team faced another setback, with Umesh Yadav out with injury after the second test. The team was losing players like dominoes.
The third test in Sydney was one of the memorable matches, filled with courage, resilience, grittiness and drama.
The Test started on a positive note for the Indian team. They had Rohit Sharma coming into the team and managed to get rid of David Warner early on. However, they didn't anticipate the counterattack from Australian middle order duo Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith, as they wore down the Indian bowling line-up, and Smith went on to make three figures.
Cheteshwar Pujara and Shubman Gill kept India in the game. However, Australia's second innings score of 312 put the Indian team in a spot of bother as the visitors needed 406 to win. However, Pujara's grittiness, Rishabh Pant's counterattack, and Ashwin and Vihari's resilience in the fourth innings helped the Indian team to pull out a historic draw.
After drawing the third test in Sydney, Australia was shocked but overconfident as they were undefeated at The Gabba for the last 32 years. However, they did not expect the breach in the fortress to happen by a relatively young Indian side.
The Indian team were without their full-strength squad in the last test of the Border-Gavaskar series. They had to bring net bowler T. Natarajan and standby player Washington Sundar into the side to replace injured experienced players Jasprit Bumrah and Ravichandran Ashwin.
Marnus Labuschagne hit a blazing century on his home ground and former Australian captain Tim Paine stood with him, also notching up a fifty. Contributions from Cameron Green and Matthew Wade helped the hosts to a big score of 369 runs.
In reply to the Aussies, the visitors showed some batting depth despite the inexperience. Shardul Thakur and Washington Sundar scored swashbuckling fifties against a feisty Australian bowling line-up, scoring 334. The hosts were ahead with a slight lead of 35 runs but were brought undone by Mohammad Siraj, who scalped his maiden five-wicket haul in Test cricket. The hosts were all-out for a competitive score of 294, and the target was set at 327 runs.
For the record, no team was able to beat Australia in Brisbane. Indian batsmen showed something special on Day 5 of the last Test thought despite early wickets.
A modern Indian wall, Pujara walked into this match, did his duty to the full extent of his abilities, took on the Australian bowlers, and was hit again and again but refused to break. Pujara's innings played a significant role in India's victory at the Gabba. He faced more than 200 balls and was supported by Shubman Gill on the other side. Shubman Gill missed his maiden Test century by nine runs.
However, there was a long way to go, and Rishabh Pant was adamant that India win. His innings of 89 will remain in every Indian's memory as India pulled off a miraculous run chase.
India's iconic test series win in overseas countries during the 2000s was in New Zealand and England. The series win in New Zealand is famous for Gautam Gambhir's long innings in the second test, where he batted out 436 balls in more than nine hours to safely take India home.
There were a couple of famous occasions in the first test, with Martin Guptill making his debut for New Zealand in Tests after his impressive stint in the 50-over format. The match started with India fielding first, with Jesse Ryder and Daniel Vettori scoring centuries and posting a score of 279 on a greenish pitch in Hamilton. Ishant Sharma went on to scalp four wickets and was economical at the same time.
India retaliated with Sachin Tendulkar playing a pure-class innings of 160 as he hunted down the bowlers, and his innings are still referred to as one of the greatest in the history books. With a lead of 240 runs, Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh ran through the Kiwis' batting order and took six wickets.
Gautam Gambhir and Rahul Dravid chased down the small total, and India registered their first Test win in New Zealand for 33 years.
With India leading the series 1-0, New Zealand was ready to give the visitors more difficult tracks to play on. In the second test, New Zealand punished the Indian bowling line-up.
Jesse Ryder scored his maiden double hundred in Test cricket and the hosts managed a gigantic score of 9 for 619. Indian players were down and out, could not do much in the first innings, and failed to save the follow-on. After the follow-on was enforced, Indian batsman Gautam Gambhir batted for more than nine hours to get India a draw.
The last test at Basin Reserve was the only chance for New Zealand to level the series, but it did not go their way. The Kiwis ultimately failed with the bat, being bundled out for less than 200 in the first innings.
There was no answer for Zaheer Khan's swing bowling, to which the hosts surrendered. Gambhir scored another century and destroyed the New Zealand conditions and bowlers. A target of 617 was established, but a, Ross Taylor century saved the day with a century, but not the series, with the drawn match seeing India claim the series 1-0.
The series victory followed what was a humiliating 2007 ODI World Cup defeat.
The match-saving innings by MS Dhoni, with a bit of help from poor lighting, is a highlight of the first Test.
The match started with a good opening partnership between Sir Alastair Cook and Sir Andrew Strauss. Captain Micheal Vaughan took the proceedings ahead after the fall of his wicket of Cook. The highlight of the first innings is Strauss and Vaughan's fifties, with Sreesanth taking three wickets.
In response to England's 298, India posted a low score of 201, with Wasim Jaffer being the only batsman to score a half-century in the innings. The English team counter-attacked with a fired up Kevin Pietersen scoring a magnificent century.
RP Singh took a five-wicket haul and assisted Zaheer Khan in taking a four-wicket haul. In the fourth innings, MS Dhoni and Dinesh Karthik saved India the match after they held their nerves on the final day, and due to bad light, the game was called off, leading it to a draw.
The second Test was at Trent Bridge, Nottingham; a ground England bowlers had always seemed to dominate at. The English team, batting first, did not have an excellent start to the Test match being dismissed for 198 in 65 overs.
The leader of the pack, Zaheer Khan, set the tone after picking up four wickets. The Indian batters hammered the Englishmen, with Karthik, Jaffer, Tendulkar, Ganguly and Laxman scoring half centuries, leading India to a big score of 481/10 (158.5) in the second innings. Micheal Vaughan retaliated with a century, and supporting fifties from Strauss and Paul Collingwood took England to 355.
Zaheer Khan took another five-wicket haul and helped India to stop England early. A tiny target was set for Indian batters to chase down, and they pursued it in less than 25 overs, India taking a lead of 1-0 in the three-match series.
The third Test saw India post a score of 664 runs with Anil Kumble's only century in Test cricket. Other players like Dinesh Karthik, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Laxman and Dhoni scored fifties.
England could have backed down, but they did not; they batted for more than 100 overs, showing resilience and getting to 345. India came to bat again and played abruptly for 180, providing the target of around 500, which had to be chased down in one and a half days of the match to ensure a test win for England. The hosts fell well short though, the match finishing in a draw.
India won the series 1-0 under the leadership of new captain Rahul Dravid with Zaheer Khan scalping 18 wickets.
India's win over Pakistan on the 2004 tour is memorable for many reasons, and one of them was Virender Sehwag's success.
The first Test is notable for two reasons: a triple hundred (309) from Sehwag and a controversial decision on an undefeated 194 from Sachin Tendulkar; Pakistan's assault against India's first innings total of 675 was a difficult one to undertake.
The numbers 407 and 216 were combined. The most complete devastation from India was a victory by an innings and 52 runs.
Following the win in Multan, India were destroyed in Lahore, where they had a batting collapse on a green top, and the Pakistani bowlers ran through the Indian line-up. The top performances from bowlers Irfan Pathan and Umar Gul saw five wickets in each innings. India ultimately fell by nine wickets, with the series level at 1-1.
India changed the playing XI for the third Test and there was no answer to Lakshmipathy Balaji's swing bowling. He ripped through Pakistan's batting order and scalped four wickets. Rahul Dravid's 270-run innings were an excellent example of focus and a brilliant display of his tenacity. Only Dravid's reckless attempt at a reverse sweep off Imran Farhat, a part-time leg-spinner, ended the 12-hour and 20-minute innings.
Kumble picked up four wickets in the second session, and Pakistan began to crumble. The victory came in when Dinesh Kaneria tried to hit Sachin Tendulkar but could not clear the ground and was caught by Ganguly.
After Virender Sehwag's record-breaking triple ton in Multan, India's 2003–04 series victory over Pakistan, led by Ganguly and Rahul Dravid, was among the most satisfying and likely the most desired.
The series is known for the little master, Sunil Gavaskar. He aggressively hammered the West Indies bowlers throughout and led India to win the series 1-0.
After the first match ended in a draw against the mighty West Indian team of the time, India came in all guns blazing in the second test match, with Bishan Bedi and Erapalli Prasanna spinning a web for West Indies batters to fall in. The spin duo ended the West Indies innings at 214, picking three and four wickets respectively.
In India's first innings, Sunil Gavaskar and Eknath Solkar notched up the fifties. Whereas Dilip Sardesai scored a magnificent century. One of the most significant moments in the match was Jack Noreiga's spell, where he scalped nine wickets in a single innings. Srinivas Venkataraghavan's five for gave India a straightforward assignment - one they were able to handle to win the match.
Sunil Gavaskar, the first "Master Blaster," got his first Test century against the West Indies in the third match of the five-match series. In his subsequent series, considered one of the finest for any batter to have played the sport, he went on to amass an astounding 774 runs.
And even though the West Indies boasted one of the greatest Test cricket teams ever, Gavaskar still gave them hell. In the five-match Test series, 774 runs were scored, including three centuries, one double century, and three half-centuries.