Tour of Bangladesh 2006-07             Captain: Rahul Dravid

India 57th Test tour

     (May 2007)

Third Test-playing tour of Bangladesh by India

    (previous tour 2004-05)

It was losing to Bangladesh that led to India’s exit from the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean.

India avenged the loss with a convincing 2-0 margin of victory in the one-day series although their hopes of a 3-0 rout was spoilt by weather with the last one-dayer washed out. They then gained a crushing win in the second Test, again after one match was spoiled by rain. So cramped were the schedules that hosting India at a time when rain is almost guaranteed was Bangladesh’s only option.

On 4 April Greg Chappell after the completion of his contract with the World Cup, resigned from his post as coach of the Indian national team. Ian Fraser, his assistant, also resigned.

Former Indian player Ravi Shastri, whose designation was ‘cricket manager’, replaced the former Australian skipper to take charge of the team temporarily. He did not carry on for the forthcoming tour of England because of already having a TV commentary contract.

Other Indian tours

Previous tour

South Africa 2006-07

Next tour

England 2007

Next tour of Bangladesh

2009-10

Members of the Test tour  party (15)

Opening batsmen: Wasim Jaffer, Dinesh Kharthik

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

Wicket-keeper:Mahendra Singh Dhoni

Spinners: Anil Kumble, Rajesh V Pawar, Ramesh Powar

Fast bowlers:R P Singh, Vikram Singh, Ishant Sharma, Zaheer Khan.

Representation of teams:  

Ranji Trophy teams

Ba - Baroda (2)

Bn - Bengal (1)

D - Delhi (1)

Hd - Hyderabad (1)

Jk - Jharkhand (1)

K - Karnataka (2)

Mb - Mumbai (3)

Pj - Punjab (2)

TN - Tamil Nadu (1)

UP  - Uttar Pradesh (1)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(18 May 2007) : 27 yrs  9 months

Test Appearances made before the tour

Tendulkar 135,  Kumble  113,  Dravid 107,  Ganguly 91,  Laxman 80,  Zaheer Khan 45,  Yuvraj Singh  19, Wasim Jaffer 17,  Dhoni 15,  Karthik 11,  VRV Singh 4,  R P Singh 2,  Powar 0,  I Sharma 0,  Pawar 0, 

Tour Officials

Selectors

Dilip Vengsarkar (chairman),  S.M.Jagdale,  Ranjib Biswal,  Bhupinder Singh,  S.V.Raju.

Selection

On 7 April Rahul Dravid was named captain and Ravi Shastri appointed coach. He would be assisted by Venkatesh Prasad as bowling coach and Robin Singh as fielding coach.

Sachin Tendulkar was appointed vice-captain of the Indian test team on 17 May

The separate one-day and Test squads were announced together

Tour Party Announced: 20 April 2007.

Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly were officially 'rested' and played only in the Test series starting May 18 along five other players: Wasim Jaffar, V.V.S. Laxman, Anil Kumble, Rajesh Pawar and Vikram Raj Vir Singh.

Not selected :  Harbhajan Singh, Irfan Pathan and Ajit Agarkar.

Members of the one-day squad: Rahul Dravid (capt), Gautam Gambhir, Robin Uthappa, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Dinesh Karthik, Dinesh Mongia, Piyush Chawla, Ramesh Powar, S. Sreesanth, Munaf Patel, Zaheer Khan, Rudra Pratap Singh.

Time between selection and departure from India

  17 days

 (20 April - 7 May)

Travel

Kolkata   Q   Dhaka

A five-day conditioning camp started at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, on 2 May 2007 and ended on May 6. leaving for Bangladesh the next day

Arrived in Zia International Airport, Dhaka, on 7 May. Rahul Dravid did not attend the press conference on arrival, still recovering from being struck by a bouncer in the nets at the training camp.

The players required only for the Tests (Sourav Ganguly,  Wasim Jaffer, Anil Kumble, V. V. S. Laxman, Rajesh Pawar,  Ishant Sharma, V. R. V. Singh and  Sachin Tendulkar) flew in on approx 14 May.

Time spent in Bangladesh

   21 days

(7 May- 28 May)

On-tour selection committee

-

Reinforcements

On 8 May Manoj Tiwary in the ODI squad was obliged to fly home without playing after suffering right shoulder injury.

The following week it was found that Sreesanth's calf injury had not healed so R.P.Singh replaced him in the Test squad, rather than going home after the ODIs.

On 18 May Munaf Patel had to leave the tour after being declared unfit due to a lower back spasm. Ishant Sharma replaced him in the Test squad. Sharma left Delhi for Chittagong on 19 May.

Fixtures/Results

† not first-class

§  one-day international

.

Time spent in Bangladesh before First Test:

 11 days

(7 May- 18 May)

Test appearances on tour

2  -   Dhoni,  Dravid,  Ganguly,  Karthik,  Kumble,  Powar,  R P Singh,  Tendulkar,  W Jaffer,  Zaheer Khan.

1 -    Sharma,  V R V Singh

0 -    Laxman,  Pawar,  Yuvraj Singh.

Match appearances

T  Test match

o  one-day international 

x other match 

∙  played for opposition

W won  L lost  D drawn  

N no result   A abandoned  

u unknown result

Highlights

•    At  Chittagong Tendulkar (101) and Ganguly (100) scored centuries

•    Four players shared in the opening stand of 408 at Mirpur : Khartik (82*) retired hurt with the total on 175-0. Then Wasim Jaffer retired ill with 138 when India’s score was 281. Rahul Dravid (129) and Tendulkar (122*) took the score on to 408 when Dravid was out, and Khartik returned to take his own score to 129

•    Bangladesh’s response to India’s total of 610-3 dec was to be bowled out for 118

•    Zaheer Khan took 5-34 in this innings and two more wickets in the second innings.

Tour Summary

Return to India

Dhaka   Q   Kolkata

Manoj Tiwary returned home early with injury.  The following returned home after the ODI matches :  Piyush Chawla, Gautam Gambhir, Dinesh Mongia, Virender Sehwag, Robin Uthappa.

Munaf Patel returned home early after suffering lower back pain.

The Test team arrived back at Kolkata Airport on Monday 28 May.  Manager of the team Ravi Shastri, bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad, fielding coach Robin Singh and batsmen, Saurav Ganguly, Dinesh Karthik (pictured with wife) and Wasim Jaffer arrived at Kolkata airport as the other players flew out to their native cities. 

The Test team arrived back at Kolkata Airport on Monday 28 May

Time away from India

  21 days  

(7 May to 28 May)

Finances

Accounts of the tour

Postscript