India were asked to follow on for the 32nd time in their Test history after hosts Sri Lanka skittled them out for 276 runs in the first innings of the Galle Test.
Of the previous 31 instances, India have been made to follow on 14 times on Indian soil, while 17 have come during away Tests. Here's a quick glance of what the numbers indicate and whether India will be able to save this Test.
- India have won one, lost 22 and drawn 8 of the previous 31 occasions. Of the 17 such instances on foreign soil, India have lost as many as 15. Of the 14 such instances on Indian soil, India have won one, lost 7 and drawn 6.
- England have enforced the follow-on on India on most occasions – 10, followed by West Indies (7), Australia (5), New Zealand (5), Pakistan (2), Sri Lanka (2) and South Africa (1).
- The other occasion when Sri Lanka enforced follow-on over India was in 2008 at Colombo (SSC). Sri Lanka declared their first innings at 600-6 and then bundled India out for 223 & 138.
- Lala Amarnath and Tiger Pataudi share the record of suffering this ignominy on most occasions- six apiece, followed by Sunil Gavaskar (3) and MS Dhoni (2).
- CK Nayudu, Maharaja of Vizianagram, Vijay Hazare, Ghulam Ahmed, Dattu Gaekwad, GS Ramchand, Ajit Wadekar, Bishan Singh Bedi ,S Venkataraghavan, Kapil Dev, Mohammad Azharuddin, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble and Virender Sehwag have suffered this fate once each. Ganguly is the only one to win a Test after being forced to follow-on.
- The first instance for Dhoni to suffer this ignominy was against Graeme Smith's South Africans at Nagpur in February this year.
