Tour of New Zealand 2008-09        Captain: M S Dhoni

India's 61st Test tour

 (February - April 2009) 

Eighth Test-playing tour of New Zealand by India

  (previous tour 2002-03)

India had agreed to extend this Test series from two to three matches at the request of New Zealand Cricket and in return for that, it had requested some practice for the players who were not part of the ODI squad.  As a result, six Indians — Rahul Dravid, V.V.S. Laxman, Amit Mishra, Murali Vijay, Dhawal Kulkarni and L. Balaji —were invited to play in New Zealand’s domestic circuit before the first Test. The tour then brought New Zealand Cricket (NZC) an income of more than $25 million from a deal for television rights.

The visitors won the first Test and drew the next two, making it the first time that India had defeated New Zealand on their own pitches in a Test series since Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi's team had beaten the Kiwis in 1967-68.

The press disparaged the Indian Board for urging New Zealand Cricket to dissociate itself from any players with connections to the ICL, and even called tour manager and former BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah "a travelling goon".  

India also won the one-day series 3-1 before losing both 20/20 internationals.

Other Indian tours

Previous tour

Sri Lanka 2008

Next tour

Bangladesh 2009-10

Next New Zealand tour

 2013-14

Members of the Test tour party  (16)

Opening batsmen: Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Murali Vijay

Middle-order batsmen: Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, V V S Laxman, Yuvraj Singh.

Wicket-keepers:Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Dinesh Karthik

Spinners: Harbhajan Singh, Amit Mishra

Fast bowlers:Lakshmipathy Balaji, Dhawal Kulkarni, Munaf Patel, Ishant Sharma, Zaheer Khan.

Comments quoted from  Sidharth Monga www.espncricinfo.com/

nzvind2009/content/story/

398836.html

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 (1)

D - Delhi (3)

Hd - Hyderabad (1)

Hy - Haryana (1)

Jk  -  Jharkhand  (1)

K - Karnataka (1)

Mb - Mumbai (3)

Pj - Punjab (2)

TN  -  Tamil Nadu (3)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(18 March 2009) :

27 yrs  9 months

Test Appearances made before the tour

Tendulkar 156,  Dravid 131,  Laxman 102,  Harbhajan 74,  Sehwag 66,  Zaheer 62,  Dhoni 35,  Yuvraj 25,  Gambhir 22,  Karthik 21,  Sharma 15,  Patel 9,  Balaji 8,  Mishra 5,  Vijay 1, Kulkarni 0.

Tour Officials

Selectors

The national selection committee - Kris Srikkanth (chairman),  Surendra Bhave,  Yashpal Sharma,  Raja Venkat and Narendra Hirwani - met at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai, to determine the squads.

Selection

Harbhajan Singh (hamstring)  and Munaf Patel (groin) were passed fit after missing a one-day international series in Sri Lanka in January 2009.

Tour Party Announced    Friday 13 February 2009.

Not selected    Ravindra Jadeja ; Pragyan Ojha; Subramaniam Badrinath ; Rohit Sharma,  R P Singh,  Sreesanth.

Time between selection and departure from India

  6 days   (13 - 19  February)

Travel

Mumbai  Q  Christchurch

The Indian squad left Mumbai early on Thursday 19 February for New Zealand. A strenuous journey, prolonged by transit stop-overs at Hong Kong and Auckland, was followed by baggage-collecting delays.

After enduring a 10-hour flight from Hong Kong, they waited for another three hours at Auckland before boarding a flight for Christchurch, arriving on 20 February which made a 27-hour trip from Mumbai.

Time spent in New Zealand

   47 days

(20 February - 8 April)

On-tour selection committee

Reinforcements

None

Fixtures/Results

† not first-class

§ one-day international

⊕  20/20 international

Time spent in New Zealand before First Test:

 26 days

(20 February - 18 March)

Test appearances on tour

3  -   Dravid,  Gambhir,  Harbhajan,  Laxman,  Patel,  Sehwag,  Sharma,  Tendulkar, Yuvraj,  Zaheer.

2  -   Dhoni

1 -    Karthik

0 -    Balaji,  Kulkarni,  Mishra,  Vijay.

Match appearances

Highlights

•    Tendulkar’s 160 in the first Test at Hamilton

•     Harbhajan Singh captured six wickets for 63 runs in New Zealand’s second innings

•   

•   

•    .

Tour Summary

Return to India

Auckland  Q  Hong Kong   Q   Indian airports

The cricketers flew out of Auckland on 8 April, the day after their last match in Wellington. They returned home in batches to different cities early on Thursday 9 April.

Dhoni, Gambhir, Sehwag, Ishant Sharma and Mishra landed at the capital’s Indira Gandhi International airport. Tendulkar, Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan, Munaf  and Kulkarni — returned to Mumbai.  Some members of the support staff of the team also landed in Mumbai

The south-based cricketers, including Dravid and Laxman, went directly to Chennai.

Time away from India

  49 days   (19 February to 9 April)

Finances

Accounts of the tour

Postscript

The players had barely 24 hours at home before they had to leave again for the IPL.

This was the last Test tour for Venkatesh Prasad and Robin Singh, who were sacked as bowling and fielding coach following the team's disastrous Champions Trophy campaign in September-October 2009.