Tour of Australia 1977-78          Captain: Bishan Bedi

India’s sixteenth Test tour

Third Test-playing tour of  Australia by India

(October 1977 –

             February 1978)

Although it was previewed as a second-rate tour on which India would be playing against a 'best of the rest' Australian side stripped of its 'Packer' players, this visit to Australia soon captured the interest of the Australian watching public. They turned away from Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket and attendances at the 'fair dinkum' Test matches were always higher than at W S C's 'supertests'.

It turned out to be a fascinating series with Australia narrowly winning the first two Test matches before going down heavily in the next two. The final Test was everything the Australian Cricket Board could hope for, with the sides level at two-all, and India making a tremendous effort to score the 493 runs set to win the match and failing by only 47 runs. Australia won the series 3-2 and this gave a fillip to the establishment version of the game.

Bob Simpson had been recalled to the Australian captaincy after nine years in retirement and he proved just the leader the new team needed, as well as showing he had retained all his batting skills.

Bedi was just as positive in his captaincy, as well as being India’s most successful bowler. However, it was Chandrasekhar who, after a slow start, was the match-winning bowler when India prevailed.

Kirmani produced the sort of performances India had hoped for since he was on the schoolboys’ tour of England ten years before. Yet the players of the series were Bedi and Gavaskar, although at one time it had looked as if they would not be chosen for the tour for disciplinary reasons.

Other Indian tours

Previous tour

West Indies 1975-76

Next tour

Pakistan 1978-79

Next Australian tour

1980-81

Members of the Test tour party  (16 + 1)

Opening batsmen: Sunil Gavaskar, Chetan Chauhan

Middle-order batsmen: Dilip Vengsarkar, Gundappa Viswanath, Ashok Mankad, Surinder Amarnath, Brijesh Patel (plus Anshuman Gaekwad replacement)

Wicket-keepers: Syed Kirmani, Bharat Reddy.

All-rounder  Mohinder Amarnath

Spinners: Bishan Bedi, Bhagwat Chandasekhar, Erapalli Prasanna, Srinivas Venkataraghaven.

Fast bowlers:Karsan Ghavri, Madan Lal.

Zonal representation

 Duleep Trophy teams

C: Central Zone (0), E: East (0), N: North (5), S: South (7), W: West (4)

 Ranji Trophy teams

B-  Bombay (4)

D  -  Delhi  (5)

K  -  Karnataka (5)

TN  -  Tamil Nadu (2)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(2 December 1977):

  28 yrs  8 months

Test Appearances made before the tour

Bedi 53,  Chandrasekhar 45,  Prasanna 43,  Viswanath 38,  Venkataraghaven 36,  Gavaskar 32,  Patel 19,  Mankad 18,  Kirmani 15,  Madan Lal 14,  M Amarnath 13,  Gaekwad 13,  Ghavri 8,  Vengsarkar 6,  S Amarnath 5,  Chauhan 5,  Reddy  0.

Tour Officials

Selectors

J M Ghorpade (chairman), Raj Singh, M L Jaisimha, C D Gopinath chose the team at a 3½-hour meeting.

Umrigar was appointed to the manager's role on 10 September and Bedi to the captaincy on 9 October.  They were co-opted on to the selection committee.

Selection

29 players were invited to a 16-day practice camp in Madras. Six players engaged in English cricket - Bedi, Abid Ali, Doshi, Madan Lal and Mohinder and Surinder Amarnath - would be considered for the Australian tour even if they could not attend the physical fitness camp at Madras.

Unavailable:  Dilip Doshi, who did not play in the Ranji Trophy, was not considered.

Tour Party Announced : 12 October 1977.

Not selected:  Of those at the camp : S Abid Ali, S Banerjee, B A Burman, R Goel, R S Hans, R Jadeja, Kapil Dev, S Krishnan, Narasimha Rao, V Ramnayran, P H Sharma, J Yajurvindra Singh were not selected

D J Rutnagur wrote in Wisden’s that “Gaekwad should have been in the touring party in the first place.”

Time between selection and departure from India

  12 days

 (12 - 24 October)

Travel

Bombay  Q   Adelaide

The team flew from Santa Cruz Airport, Bombay, on 24 October 1977 and experienced a 15-hour long delay en route to Perth, where they landed ln 25 October, and left for Adelaide by plane the next day.

Extra security had been arranged because of threats against Indian nationals in Australia from a terrorist group.

Time spent in Australia  106 days

(25 October - 8 February)

On-tour selection committee

Bishan Bedi (captain),  Sunil Gavaskar (vice-captain), Polly Umrigar (manager),  S Venkataraghaven.

Reinforcements

Gaekwad was needed to replace Surinder Amarnath who had a hand injury. Gaekwad left India on 23 January and came in to the side for the Fifth Test.

Fixtures/Results

† not first-class

.

Time spent in Australia before First Test:

 38 days

(25 October - 2 December)

Test appearances on tour

5 -   M Amarnath,  Bedi,  Chandrasekhar,  Gavaskar,  Kirmani,  Vengsarkar,  Viswanath.

4 -   Chauhan, Prasanna,

3 -   Ghavri,  Mankad

2 -   Patel,  Madan Lal,

1 -   Gaekwad,  Venkataraghaven

0 -   S Amarnath, Reddy.

Highlights

•    Gavaskar as expected led the batting, scoring centuries in each of the first 3 Test matches.

•    Viswanath did not make a century but scored five consecutive fifties and topped the averages with 52.55

•    At Perth, after scoring 90 in the first innings, Mohinder Amarnath scored India’s only other century (100), adding a record 193 for the second wicket with Gavaskar.

•    Bedi took five wickets in an innings on three occasions and had 31 wickets in the Test series.

•    Chandrasekhar’s 12 wickets at Melbourne won the match for India; he took 28 wickets in the series.

Tour Summary

Return to India

 ?   Q  Singapore   Q   Bombay     

The team left Australia on 8 February 1977, played a match against Singapore on the way home, and arrived back in Bombay on 12 February.

Time away from India

  111 days  

(24 October to 12 February)

Finances

Accounts of the tour

Postscript