Bangalore: After the ongoing current NatWest tri-series involving India, England and Sri Lanka, India will be taking on England in a four-Test series the first of which will be starting from 25th July at Lord's.

India has toured England 13 times so far dating from its inaugural tour on any foreign soil way back in 1932. It is interesting to note that India started its international Test career by playing first against England in 1932 at Lord's - known as the Mecca of cricket grounds - under the captaincy of the legendary Colonel C K Nayudu.

Although India lost the only Test, it won the admiration of many for the fighting spirit it showed and the captaincy of Nayudu was applauded. In the 13 series played so far comprising of 41 Tests in England, India has won the series only twice - in 1971 by winning the Oval Test (and drawing two Tests) under the dynamic leader Ajit Wadekar - which incidentally was its first overseas win in England shortly after the historic win in West Indies the same year.

Its next series win came after a lapse of 15 years when it won in 1986 under the captaincy of Kapil Dev - at Lord's and Leeds (and drawing one Test). Since then India has been fighting hard to achieve a Test win in England but in vain.

Of all the foreign visits, when it comes to touring England, every country is eager to perform better and attach some significance to such visit. The fight between the traditional rivals Australia and England for the prestigious 'Ashes' is well known.

So also the other countries wish to lay their tall claims in their visits to England but have been rarely successful barring Australia and save in some cases when the mighty West Indians ruled by its own law when it was on top of the world.

The other teams victories in England could be counted on fingers. England has now become a well-knit unit under the able stewardship of Nasser Hussain. By winning the series comfortably by 2-0 margin in the recently concluded 3 Test-series against Sri Lanka - who had a streak of 9 continuous Test wins at one time and who had beaten Pakistan at Lahore in the Asian Test Championship, England has given signals to India as to what might be in store for the visitors in case the hosts are considered underdogs.

On the other hand India had a disappointing Test series losing in West Indies in early 2002. The only consolation India is having is that it has beaten England in the home series in 2002 albeit unconvincingly as England had almost turned the table to square the series but for rain God interfering in the final Test at Bangalore.

In all, the two countries have played 24 Test series (including one Test series) with England winning 15 and India 7; 2 series' ended in draws; all the series have ended with a result in England while the two drawn series have occurred in India - in 1951/52 and 1963/64.

Test wise also India has won only 3 Tests in England out of 41 Tests played so far and 12 Tests out of 46 played in India. India has thus played a total of 87 Tests against England winning 15, losing 32 and drawing the remaining 40.

Saurav Ganguly - the current captain - had in fact made his debut during his last tour to England in 1996 along with his deputy Rahul Dravid. What is more the two had celebrated their debuts on an acclaiming note - Ganguly had scored a century on debut while Dravid had missed the coveted mark by just 5 runs.

Following are some of the stats confining to India and England Tests:

Tests Played :	P	W	L	D
India	87	15	32	40
England	87	32	15	40
	Tests	Won by Ind	Won by Eng	Drawn
In India	46	12	10	24
In England	41	3	22	16

CAPTAINCY
Series	Tests	Won By		Drawn	Toss Won by		Captains		Series
in Eng		Ind	Eng		Ind	Eng	India	England	won by
1932	1	-	1	-	-	1	CK Nayudu	DR Jardine	Eng
1936	3	-	2	1	2	1	Mah of Vizianagaram	GO Allen	Eng
1946	3	-	1	2	2	1	Nawab of Pat (Sr)	WR Hammond	Eng
1952	4	-	3	1	2	2	VS Hazare	L Hutton	Eng
1959	5	-	5	-	3	2	DK Gaekwad	PBH May	Eng
							P Roy (2nd)	MC Cowdrey (4th/5th)
1967	3	-	3	-	1	2	Nawab of Pat (Jr)	DB Close	Eng
1971	3	1	-	2	3	-	AL Wadekar	R Illingworth	Ind
1974	3	-	3	-	1	2	AL Wadekar	MH Denness	Eng
1979	4	-	1	3	1	3	S Venkatraghavan	JM Brearley	Eng
1982	3	-	1	2	-	3	SM Gavaskar	RGD Willis	Eng
1986	3	2	-	1	2	1	Kapil Dev	DI Gower	Ind
								MW Gatting (2nd/3rd)
1990	3	-	1	2	2	1	M Azharuddin	GA Gooch	Eng
1996	3	-	1	2	3	-	M Azharuddin	MA Atherton	Eng
	41	3	22	16	22	19
In India
1933/34	3	-	2	1	1	2	CK Nayudu	DR Jardine	Eng
1951/52	5	1	1	3	2	3	VS Hazare	ND Howard	Drawn
								DB Carr (5th)
1961/62	5	2	-	3	4	1	NJ Contractor	ER Dexter	Ind
1963/64	5	-	-	5	5	-	Nawab of Pat (Jr)	MJK Smith	Drawn
1972/73	5	2	1	2	4	1	AL Wadekar	AR Lewis	Ind
1976/77	5	1	3	1	3	2	BS Bedi	AW Greig	Eng
1979/80	1	-	1	-	1	-	GR Viswanath	JM Brearley	Eng
1981/82	6	1	-	5	1	5	SM Gavaskar	KWR Fletcher	Ind
1984/85	5	1	2	2	4	1	SM Gavaskar	DI Gower	Eng
1992/93	3	3	-	-	2	1	M Azharuddin	GA Gooch	Ind
								(AJ Stewart (2nd)
2001/02	3	1	-	2	1	2	SC Ganguly	Nasser Hussain	Ind
	46	12	10	24	28	18
Total:	87	15	32	40	50	37