ICC World Cup was first organized in 1975, and since then 11 editions of the tournament have been played by the Indian team. India has lifted the  World Cup trophy twice, the first time in 1983 under the leadership of Kapil Dev and then in 2011 with Mahinder Singh Dhoni at the helm.

Today India is spotted on the second position in ICC ODI rankings and is considered one of the best teams in the world cricket. But before India clinched its first world cup in 1983, the Indian team was not even considered a contender for winning.

India at the 1975 World Cup

1975 Cricket World Cup was held in June in England. A match of 60 overs per side was played over a period of two weeks from June 7 to June 21. Off-spinner Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan lead the team and including leading batsmen like Sunil Gavaskar, Gundappa Vishwanath, Farokh Engineer and Bishen Singh Bedi. When India played the first world cup, the Indian team was relatively inexperienced at one day cricket as the team had played its first ODI a year earlier in 1974 against England. 1974 tour to England was disastrous for India as India lost all the matches that included three test matches and two ODIs.

India played its first match with England at Lords and lost the match by 202 runs. The match became notorious for Gavaskar's controversial knock. Chasing the target of  335, Gavaskar carried his bat for the entire 60 overs to score only 36 runs off 174 balls with just one boundary. 

In the second match with East Africa (EA), India won the match with disciplined bowling from Madan Lal (3/15) that restricted EA to 120. In the last and must-win match against New Zealand, New Zealand won the match by 4 wickets. India was crashed out of the tournament and finished third in their group after winning one match and losing two games.   

India at the 1979 World Cup

The second edition of the Cricket World Cup was held in 1979 in England from June 9 to June 23. An inexperienced Indian cricket team was not counted among the strong rivals. India once again like 1975 opened their campaign with the loss from West Indies in the first match. India was bowled all out for 190 in the 54th over in reply to which WI won the match with the loss of just a single wicket. India then lost its second match to New Zealand in a one-sided game. India lost the last match too against Sri Lanka that was a pride match for India.

 The extent of the failure of the Indian team could be assumed from the fact that India lost all the three matches and the team never managed to touch the total of 200  (190 vs WI, 182 vs NZ and 191 vs SRI Lanka) in the second edition of the tournament