| Tour of Pakistan
2003-04 Captain: Sourav Ganguly | |
| | | | |
| India's 51st Test tour (March
- April 2004) Third
Test-playing tour of Pakistan
by India (previous tour1989-90) | The tour itinerary was agreed
very late. And then Indian players expressed concerns about touring after a
terrorist bomb exploded in Karachi
and sent a three-man team to inspect security at the beginning of February.
The Pakistan Board which stood to lose millions said it would seek
compensation but in the end the tour progressed peacefully enough after being
delayed by one week | Other Indian
tours Previous
tour Australia 2003-04 Next
tour Bangladesh 2004-05 Next Pakistan tour 2005-06 | |
| Members
of the Test tour party (15 + 2) Opening batsmen: Akash Chopra, Virender Sehwag. Middle-order batsmen: Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman,
Yuvraj Singh. Wicket-keepers: Parthiv Patel Spinners: Murali Kartik, Anil Kumble, Ramesh Powar. Fast bowlers:Ajit
Agarkar, Irfan Pathan, Lakshmipathy Balaji Zaheer Khan (replaced
by Asish Nehra) Md. Kaif . | A B Agarkar | (Mb) / (W) | 26 | RFM | | | L Balaji | TN / (S) | 22 | RFM | ODI | | A Chopra | D / N | 26 | RHB opener | | | R S
Dravid | (K) / (S) | 30 | RHB vice-captain | ODI | | S C Ganguly | (Bn) / (E) | 31 | LHB | ODI | | M Kartik | (Rly) / (C) | 27 | SLA | ODI | | A Kumble | (K) / (S) | 33 | LBG | | | V V S
Laxman | (Hd) / (S) | 29 | RHB | ODI | | P A Patel | (Gj) / W | 19 | LHB WK | ODI | | I K Pathan | Ba / (W) | 19 | LFM | ODI | | R R Powar | Ba / W | 25 | OB | ODI | | V Sehwag | (D) / (N) | 25 | RHB opener OB | ODI | | S R Tendulkar | (Mb) / (W) | 30 | RHB RM | ODI | | Yuvraj Singh | Pj / N | 22 | LHB SLA | ODI | | Zaheer Khan | (Ba) / (W) | 25 | LFM | ODI | | Chosen
on 1 March for the one-day matches | H K Badani | ODI | | A Bhandari added | ODI | | | | Mohammad
Kaif | ODI | | | | A
Nehra | ODI |
|
Zonal representation Duleep
Trophy teams C: Central (1), E: East (3), N: North (2), S: South (5), W: West
(5) Ranji
Trophy teams Ba - Baroda
(3) Bn - Bengal
(1) D - Delhi
(2) Gj - Gujarat
(1) H - Hyderabad
(1) K - Karnataka (2) Mb - Mumbai (2) Pj - Punjab
(1) Rly - Railways (1) TN - Tamil Nadu (1) Average age of team at time of first Test match (28 March 2004) : 26
yrs 5 months | |
| Test
Appearances made before the tour | Tendulkar 111, Dravid 75,
Ganguly 72, Zaheer Khan
28, Kumble 81,
Laxman 50, Agarkar 20, Sehwag 20,
Nehra 16, Patel 13, Chopra 6,
Mohammad Kaif 4, Kartik 4,
Balaji 2, Pathan 2, Yuvraj Singh 1, Powar 0 | | |
| Tour
Officials | Ratnakar Shetty | Manager | John Wright | Coach | Andrew Leipus | Physiotherapist | Amrit Mathur | Media
manager | Ramesh Mane | Masseur | Dr Anant Joshi | Doctor |
Kapil Dev was appointed
bowling consultant on 1 March but did not accompany the side to India | | |
| Selectors | S.M.H.Kirmani (chairman), Kirti Azad, Pranab Roy, Kiran More, Sanjay Jagdale. | | |
| Selection | The selectors met in Kolkata on 1 March, two days ahead of
schedule to allow time for a preparation camp before the tour. Unavailable: Harbhajan Singh
(surgery on hand). Zaheer Khan overcame his hamstring injury. Kumble
(shoulder injury) and Agarkar (shin) were unfit for the ODI series. One-day team announced : 1 March 2004. H.K.Badani, seamer Amit Bhandari and
Mohammad Kaif were selected for the 15-member team for the one-day series.
Nehra was required to play in the Duleep Trophy final at Mohali to prove his
fitness for the one-day squad Agarkar, Chopra, Kumble
were chosen for the Test matches only. Test Tour Party Announced : Monday 22 March 2003 Only Tendulkar had played a Test on Pakistani soil before. | Time between selection and departure from India 9 days (1 March - 10 March) | |
| Travel New Delhi Q Lahore | On Sunday 7 March the players
assembled for a practice match and two-day conditioning camp at the Eden
Gardens, Kolkata, before leaving for New Delhi. The squad was given a
briefing by the Ministry of Home and External Affairs, before meeting Prime
Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who presented team members with an
autographed bat. On 10 March the team flew from Indira
Gandhi International
Airport, Delhi,
by a special Indian Airlines flight and flew into the eastern city of Lahore at 1:47 pm “The
players did not arrive at the appointed hour. Their takeoff had been pegged
back by thirty minutes. This was a ruse, to throw off any time-activated
bombs,” wrote Rahul Bhattacharya. in Lahore
where they were greeted by the Nazim of Lahore, Mian Amir Mehmood, the
fifteen-man team were whisked out of the departure lounge while the fans
expected them at the arrivals lounge. Kumble and Agarkar joined up
with the Test squad at the end of March in Multan. | Time spent in Pakistan 38 days (10 March - 17 April) | |
| On-tour
selection committee | John Wright (coach), Saurav Ganguly (captain), Rahul
Dravid (vice-captain) | | |
| Reinforcements | Amit
Bhandari (25, RFM) replaced Ashish Nehra (finger and ankle injuries) for the
remainder of the one-day series. Nehra
then returned to Pakistan,
flying back to Lahore
on 2 April and came under consideration for the 2nd Test owing to the
unfitness of Zaheer Khan
(hamstring) who returned home on 5 April. Mohammad Kaif was brought in to the
Test team as cover for Sourav Ganguly,
who returned to Kolkata on 1 April for specialist treatment to his back. | | |
| Fixtures/Results | a | ϯ Lahore | Pakistan 'A'
(50 overs) | Lost 6w | b | § Karachi | Pakistan (1st ODI) | Won 5 r | c | § Rawalpindi | Pakistan (2nd ODI) | Lost 12 r | d | § Peshawar | Pakistan (3rd ODI) | Lost 4 w | e | § Lahore | Pakistan (4th ODI) | Won 5 w | f | § Lahore | Pakistan (5th ODI) | Won 40 r | g | MULTAN | PAKISTAN First Test | WON
inns 52 | h | LAHORE | PAKISTAN Second Test | LOST 9
w | i | RAWALPINDI | PAKISTAN Third Test | WON
inns 131 |
| † not first-class § one-day international . Time spent in Pakistan
before First Test: 18
days (10 March - 28 March) | |
| Test
appearances on tour | 3 - Balaji, Dravid, Kumble, Laxman, Patel, Pathan, Sehwag, Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh. 2 - Chopra. 1 - Agarkar,
Ganguly, Nehra, Zaheer Khan. 0 - Kaif,
Kartik, Powar. | | |
| Match
appearances T Test match o one-day international x other match ∙ played for opposition W won L lost D drawn T tied N no
result A abandoned u unknown
result The opening tour match was 12-a-side | | a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | A B Agarkar | | | | | | | | T | | H K Badani | | o | | | | | | | | L Balaji | x | o | o | o | o | o | T | T | T | A Bhandari | | | | | | | | | | A Chopra | | | | | | | T | T | | R S Dravid | x | o | o | o | o | o | T | T | T | S C Ganguly | x | o | o | o | o | o | | | T | Mohammad Kaif | x | o | o | o | o | o | | | | M Kartik | x | o | | | o | o | | | | A Kumble | | | | | | | T | T | T | V V S Laxman | x | | o | o | o | o | T | T | T | A Nehra | | o | o | | | | | | T | P A Patel | x | | | | | | T | T | T | I K Pathan | x | | | o | o | o | T | T | T | R R Powar | | | o | o | | | | | | V Sehwag | x | o | o | o | o | o | T | T | T | S R Tendulkar | x | o | o | o | o | o | T | T | T | Yuvraj Singh | x | o | o | o | o | o | T | T | T | Zaheer Khan | x | o | o | o | o | o | T | | | R
E S U L T S | L | W | L | L | W | W | W | L | W |
| | |
| Highlights | • Sehwag scored 309 at Multan, at the time India’s highest score by an
individual batsman; it is bettered only by Sehwag’s own score of 319 at
Chennai in 2007-08. 309 was India’s
highest individual score made abroad. • With Tendulkar (194*),
Sehwag added 336 in an Indian record 3rd wicket stand at Multan. • Pakistan were
made to follow-on in the first Test and Kumble bowled them out with 6-72 • Yuvraj Singh scored
112 at Lahore
and added 117 for the 8th wicket with Pathan (49) • Rahul Dravid’s innings
of 270 dominated the final Test at Rawalpindi;
he shared in three century partnerships and India totalled 600 all out. | | |
| Tour
Summary | | P | W | L | D | Aban | Test Matches | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | - | Other first-class matches | 0 | - | - | - | - | ϯ Minor matches | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | - | § One-day internationals | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | - | All Matches | 9 | 5 | 4 | 0 | - |
| | |
| Return
to India Islamabad Q New
Delhi | The Indian team left Islamabad Airport
and flew to Indira Gandhi International
Airport, New
Delhi, where they arrived on Saturday evening 17 April 2004 welcomed
by thousands of fans celebrating their win over Pakistan. | Time away from India 38
days (10
March to 17 April) | |
| Finances | | | |
| Published
accounts of the tour | “Pundits
from Pakistan” by
Rahul Bhattacharya (Picador) | | |
| Postscript | | | |