Tour of Australia 1991-92              Captain: Mohammad Azharuddin

India's 31st Test tour

Sixth Test-playing tour of  Australia by India

  (November 1991 -

               February 1992))

Despite this being a four-month tour, India's 4-0 defeat in the Test matches highlighted the tourists' ha inadequate preparation for the series. On the insistence of their own Board, India were allowed only one first-class match before the opening Test. Forcing the players to squeeze in a short series against the South Africans beforehand was the problem. 

The Indians also lost 2-0 in the finals of the World Series Cup.

At the end of the tour the Indians remained in Australia for the 1992 World Cup, in which they were knocked out before the semi-final stage. Wilting under pressure when batting, the bowlers rarely hadmuch to bowl at. Poor fielding and lack of fitness also came in for criticism but criss-crossing Australia for 4½ months hardly helped. They were made to remain in Australia instead of taking a two-week break from cricket at home, and rather than spend that time on the Australian beaches or playing golf they were made to play pointless ‘warm-up’ matches.  Azharuddin described it as his longest and hardest tour.

It was the first Test series played under the ICC Code of Conduct and overseen by a match referee.

Other Indian tours

Previous tour

England 1990

Next tour

Zimbabwe & South Africa 1992-93

Next tour of Australia

1999-2000

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Members of the Test tour  party (16)

Opening batsmen:  Ravi Shastri, Kris Srikkanth

Middle-order batsmen: Dilip Vengsarkar, Mohammad Azharuddin, Sourav Ganguly, Sanjay Manjrekar, Praveen Amre,

Wicket-keepers: Kiran More, Chandrakant Pandit

Spinners: Ravi Shastri, Venkatapathy Raju, Narendra Hirwani

Fast bowlers: Javagal Srinath, Kapil Dev, Subroto Banerjee, Manoj Prabhakar

Representation of teams:  

Bn  - Bengal (3)

B -  Bombay (6)

Hy -  Haryana (1)

Hd -  Hyderabad (2)

K -  Karnataka (1)

Mh – Maharashtra (1)

TN -  Tamil Nadu (2)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(29 November 1991) :

    26 yrs  5 months

WC member of the squad of 14 for World Cup.

Test Appearances made before the tour

Vengsarkar 111,  Kapil Dev 110,  Shastri 73,  Azharuddin 41,  Srikkanth 39,  More 35,  Manjrekar 16,  Hirwani 14,  Prabhakar 13,  Tendulkar 11,  Pandit 3,  Raju 3,  Amre 0,  S T Banerjee 0,  Ganguly 0, Srinath 0 

Team Officials

Selectors

Naren Tamhane (chairman),  Rusi Jeejeebhoy, Ravinder Chadha, S Venkataraghaven, Anand Shukla

 Captain Azharuddin, coach Abbas Ali Baig and manager Ranbhir Singh were also present at the meeting, which lasted 150 minutes.

Selection

Tour Party Announced:   Sunday 3 November 1991.

Srikkanth and Vengsarkar were not among the 22 probables.

Not selected: Vinod Kambli (in order to include another bowler), W V Raman,  Anil Kumble.

Withdrawal: Navjot Singh Sidhu had to pull out of the tour, owing to injury at Gwalior in one of the matches against South Africa.

In place of Sidhu, an opening batsman, the team management requested Hirwani (a leg-spinner), and this was approved by BCCI President Madhavrao Scindia without consulting the selectors.

World Cup squad announced:

Time between selection and departure from India

  12 days

 (3 - 15 November)

Travel

The departure date could not be fixed until the hurriedly-arranged South African visit was confirmed. Having just played an ODI against South Africa on 14 November, the team left New Delhi early the next morning, 15 November. They were bid farewell at the airport by the Australian High Commissioner David Evans and Mr C Nagaraj, the BCCI secretary.

They flew by way of Singapore, arriving in Perth early on 16 November 1991.

Time spent in Australia

   121 days

(16 November - 16 March)

On-tour selection committee

Ranbhir Singh (manager),  Abbas Ali Baig (coach),  Mohammad Azharuddin (captain),  Ravi Shastri (vice-captain)

Reinforcements

Sidhu was flown in when Shastri had a knee injury that prevented him from playing in the last two Tests. He remained with the World Cup side but played in only one of the warm-up matches

Jadeja and Kambli were added to the team as part of the World Cup squad of fourteen.

Fixtures/Results

(1)  Lake Oval,   (2) Toorak Park

§  one-day international

†  not first-class

Time spent in Australia before First Test:

 13 days

(16 November - 29 November)

Test appearances on tour

5  -  Azharuddin,  Kapil Dev,  Manjrekar,  Prabhakar,  Srinath,  Tendulkar,  Vengsarkar.

4  -  Raju,  Srikkanth

3  -  More,  Shastri,  Sidhu

2  -  Pandit

1 -   Banerjee

0 -   Amre,  Ganguly,  Hirwani.

Highlights

•     Sachin Tendulkar was outstanding, scoring two Test centuries: 148* at Sydney and 114 at Perth

•    The highest scorer for India was Ravi Shastri (206 at Sydney)

•    Kapil Dev had his most successful series with the ball outside India taking 25 wickets.

•    Kapil Dev also reached the 400 Test wicket landmark previously achieved only by Sir Richard Hadlee.

•    Kris Srikkanth took five catches in the innings at Perth.

Tour Summary

Return to India

The last day of the final Test was 5 February 1992. Vengsarkar, the only one of the party of 17 not to play a match in the World Series Cup, as well as Ganguly, Pandit, Hirwani and Sidhu had to return home while their 14 team mates remained to take part in the World Cup. On his return Vengsarkar announced his retirement from first-class cricket.

On 15 March in Adelaide India failed to reach the semi-finals and dropped out of  the World Cup. Members of the team flew back from Sydney on 16 March.

Azharuddin disembarked at Madras.  Manjrekar, Shastri, More, Tendulkar, Banerjee, Amre, Kambli and Ali Irani arrived quietly at Sahar Airport, Bombay, to a lukewarm welcome on Thursday morning 19 March. Abbas Ali Baig arrived home next day.

Time away from India

  125 days   (15 November to 19 March)

Finances