Tom Latham: What even Ponting-Smith and Williamson could not do, Tom Latham did that miracle, only the sixth such captain.

The New Zealand cricket team did what hardly anyone expected from it, which the fans of India, Australia and South Africa had been aspiring for for the last one and a half decade but could not get success. Under the captaincy of Tom Latham, New Zealand won the Test series against England 2-1. In this way, in the last 11 years, New Zealand became the only team which has won the Test series in England twice. But the success of the team is on one side and the achievement of captain Latham is on the other. Tom Latham became the first foreign captain in the last 39 years to win a Test series in India and England.

On Monday 29 June, New Zealand defeated England by 160 runs in the third and last Test match at Trent Bridge Stadium in Nottingham. Just before this, New Zealand had also won the second Test match played at the Oval in London by a huge margin of 253 runs. After losing the first Test match of the series within 3 days and after the announcement of Kane Williamson’s retirement, New Zealand made a strong comeback under the captaincy of Latham and won the series 2-1.

Before this memorable success, in 2024, under the captaincy of Latham, New Zealand had defeated India for the first time in a Test series on Indian soil. Not only were they defeated but they were swept 3-0. This was one of the biggest Test successes in New Zealand cricket history as the Indian team was defeated 3-0 by a team on its own soil for the first time. In this way, within just 2 years, New Zealand opener and captain Tom Latham got his name written in a special list, in which he is the only Kiwi captain.

This is the list of those captains who made their team win the Test series in India and England. Only 5 legendary captains are included in it and many successful captains could not make it to it. Latham has now become the sixth such captain and the most important thing is that after 39 years a captain has done this. Earlier in 1987, Imran Khan was the last captain who won the Test series in India and England. Apart from these two, John Goddard (West Indies), Richie Benaud (Australia), Gary Sobers (West Indies) and Clive Lloyd (West Indies) are the only captains in the list who achieved this feat.