| 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 | L
Balaji | TN | 27 | RFM | | | M S Dhoni | Jk | 27 | RHB WK captain | T20 ODI | What
he brings to the side became glaringly obvious in the Test he missed - a
different level of energy | R S Dravid | K | 36 | RHB | | Shrugged
off his poor run of form. He was the most consistent Indian batsman | G
Gambhir | D | 27 | LHB opener | T20 ODI | Removed
question marks over his temperament and doubts over his batting outside the
subcontinent. | Harbhajan
Singh | Pj | 28 | OB | T20 ODI | Revelation
of the tour for India.
taking wickets and also tying one end up for the fast bowlers | K D
Karthik | TN | 23 | WK | T20 ODI | | D S Kulkarni | Mb | 20 | RM | | | V V S Laxman | Hd | 34 | RHB | | In
Napier scored a hundred that was a perfect blend of caution, fluency, and
breathtaking strokeplay. | A
Mishra | Hy | 26 | LBG | | | M M
Patel | Mb | 25 | RFM | T20 ODI | When
he went for runs looked lethargic and disinterested. but could solve
problem of the third seamer | V
Sehwag | D | 30 | RHB opener (OB) vice-captain | T20 ODI | Missed out and attracted criticism for shot-selection
against spinners but put bowlers off their plan | I
Sharma | D | 19 | RFM | T20 ODI | Struggled
in the Wellington wind, but impressive in Hamilton: just wasn't
consistent enough | S R
Tendulkar | Mb | 35 | RHB | ODI | Some
of his fluent batting rolled back the years, and reminded of the Tendulkar
of the old | M
Vijay | TN | 24 | RHB opener | | | Yuvraj
Singh | Pj | 27 | LHB (SLA) | T20 ODI | Undid
the good work from series against England… will have to start a
new Test innings all over again. | Zaheer
Khan | Ba | 29 | LFM | T20 ODI | Got
early wickets every time. Hostility, precision, and intelligence all worked
for him | | Limited-overs squad | | | R A
Jadeja | T20 | | | | Praveen
Kumar | T20 ODI | | | | P Ohja
| T20 ODI | | | | I K
Pathan | T20 ODI | | | | Y K
Pathan | T20 ODI | | | | S K
Raina | T20 ODI | | | | R G
Sharma | T20 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 (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 | Niranjan Shah | Administrative
Manager | Gary Kirsten | Head Coach | Venkatesh Prasad | Bowling Coach | Robin Singh | Fielding Coach | Paddy Upton | Conditioning Coach | Ramji Srinivasan | Fitness Trainer | Nitin Patel | Physiotherapist | Ramesh Mane | Masseur | C K M Dhananjai | Video Analyst |
| | |
| 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 | a | ⊕ Christchurch | New Zealand (1st T20) | Lost 7 w | b | ⊕ Wellington | New Zealand (2nd T20) | Lost 5 w | c | § Napier | New Zealand (1st ODI) | Won 53 r | d | § Wellington | New Zealand (2nd ODI) | No result | e | § Christchurch | New Zealand (3rd ODI) | Won 58 r | f | § Hamilton | New Zealand (4th ODI) | Won 84 r | g | § Auckland | New Zealand (5th ODI) | Lost 8 w | h | HAMILTON | NEW ZEALAND First Test | WON 10 w | i | NAPIER | NEW ZEALAND Second Test | DRAWN | j | WELLINGTON | NEW ZEALAND Third Test | DRAWN |
| † 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 | | P | W | L | D | Aban | Test Matches | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | - | Other first-class matches | 0 | - | - | - | - | ϯ Minor matches | 0 | - | - | - | - | § One-day
internationals | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | - | ⊕ 20/20 internationals | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | | All Matches | 10 | 4 | 3 | 3 | - |
| | |
| 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. | | |