Tour of Sri Lanka 2008            Captain: Anil Kumble

India's sixtieth Test tour

Sixth Test-playing tour of Sri Lanka by India

 (July - August 2008)

The series trialled a system of referring decisions to the off-field umpire. Sri Lanka were favourites, having just flown back home after beating India in the Asia Cup in Karachi, and had uncovered a new leg-spinner Ajantha Mendis to partner Muralitharan.

The Indians lost by an innings and 239 runs inside four days in the first Test at the SSC (where Mendis ran through the side) but levelled the series with a 170-run win at Galle. Virender Sehwag’s sensational double-century contributed a record 61 per cent of India’s runs.

For the first time in a three-Test series in Sri Lanka the visiting team did not play at the Asgiriya stadium in Kandy, so Colombo’s Saravanamuttu Stadium saw the decider. However, the tourists’ famed batting line-up again let them down and Sri Lanka took the Test series 2-1.

Other Indian tours

Previous tour

Australia 2007-08

Next tour

New Zealand 2008-09

Next Sri Lankan tour

 2010

Members of the Test tour party (16)

Opening batsmen: Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag.

Middle-order batsmen: Saurav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, V V S Laxman, Rohit Sharma.

Wicket-keepers:Dinesh Karthik, Parthiv Patel.

Spinners:  Harbhajan Singh, Anil Kumble, Pragyan Ojha.

Fast bowlers: Munaf Patel, Ishant Sharma, Rudra Pratap Singh, Zaheer Khan.

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)

Bn - Bengal (1)

D - Delhi (3)

Gj - Gujarat (1)

H - Hyderabad (2)

K - Karnataka (2)

Mh -  Maharashtra (1)

Mb - Mumbai (2)

Pj - Punjab (1)

TN - Tamil Nadu (1)

UP  - Uttar Pradesh (1)

Seven of the team did not compete in 2007-08’s Ranji Super League

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(23 July 2008) :

  28 yrs  2 months

Test Appearances made before the tour

Tendulkar 147,  Kumble 127,  Dravid 122,  Ganguly 106,  Laxman 93,  Harbhajan 66,  Sehwag 57,  Zaheer Khan 53,  Karthik 19,  P A Patel 19,  Gambhir 14,  R P Singh 13,  M M Patel 9,  Ishant Sharma 6,  Ohja 0,  Rohit Sharma 0.

Tour Officials

T C Mathew was Hon Secretary of the Kerala Cricket Association.

Mathew was the second representative from Kerala after Mr A Salim to be appointed Indian team manager. He was later President of the KCA and managed the Indian team in New Zealand in 2014.

Selectors

Dilip Vengsarkar (chairman),  Bhupinder Singh Sr.,  Sanjay Jagdale,  Ranjib Biswal,  Venkatapathy Raju.

Selection

Unavailable   M S Dhoni (on 7 July Dhoni pulled out of the three-Test series in Sri Lanka, citing exhaustion after a non-stop season) ;  Sreesanth (side strain).

Harbhajan Singh returned to international cricket after completing his five-match ODI ban.

Tour Party Announced :   8 July 2008.

Parthiv Patel, having last played for India in October 2004, was selected so he was unable to lead India A in the Emerging Players Tournament in Australia; Suresh Raina replaced him.

Not included:  Waseem Jaffer,  Irfan Pathan,  Piyush Chawla,  Yuvraj Singh .

Limited-overs squad announced :  8 August 2008

Ishant Sharma was rested from the ODIs in Sri Lanka to be ready for the ICC Champions Trophy in September.

Sachin Tendulkar withdrew with an elbow injury, and Badrinath took his place in the squad.

Time between selection and departure from India

  7 days

 (8 July - 15 July)

Travel

Chennai  Q  Colombo

There was a seven-day camp for the Test players in Bangalore. The team assembled in Chennai on evening of Sunday 13 July for a day's further practice before flying out to Colombo on Tuesday 15 July.

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) officials received Kumble’s men upon their arrival at the Bandaranaike International Airport, Katunayake, about 30 km north of Colombo, and they were later escorted to a five-star hotel.

The one-day players flew from Bangalore on morning of Wed 13 August and arrived in Colombo that evening after 4 hours delay : Dhoni and six others, Yuvraj Singh, Irfan Pathan, Suresh Raina, Praveen Kumar and two uncapped players, Delhi's Virat Kohli, the under-19 captain, and Tamil Nadu's S Badrinath who was drafted in when Sachin Tendulkar sustained an injury to his left elbow during the third Test. They arrived in Colombo on Wednesday evening.

Time spent in Sri Lanka

   46 days

(15 July - 30 August)

On-tour selection committee

Reinforcements

Fixtures/Results

 NCC  Nondescripts Cricket Club   SSC  Sinhalese Sports Club    PSS  P Saravannamuttu Stadium   RPS  R Premadasa Stadium

† not first-class

§  one-day international

Time spent in Sri Lanka before First Test:

    8 days

(15 July - 23 July)

Test appearances on tour

3  -    Dravid,  Gambhir,  Ganguly,  Harbhajan,  Kumble,  Laxman,  Sehwag,  Ishant Sharma,  Tendulkar,  Zaheer

2  -    Karthik

1 -     P A Patel.

0 -     Ohja,   M M Patel,  R P Singh,  Rohit Sharma.

Match appearances

Highlights

•   

•    Virender Sehwag carried his bat, scoring 201* out of 329 at Galle (Second Test)

•    Harbhajan Singh and Ishant Sharma turned in match-winning performances in Galle

•   

•    .

Tour Summary

Return to India

Colombo  Q    Chennai

Gary Kirsten, India's coach, was granted leave by the BCCI to travel to South Africa on 5 August to be with his mother who was critically ill but she died of cancer in a Cape Town hospital, aged 64.

Sachin Tendulkar, who was ruled out of the five-match ODI series due to landing on his left elbow in the Test and was replaced (by Subramaniam Badrinath) in the squad for the five ODIs, returned home on 12 August.

Dravid, Ganguly, Karthik, Kumble, Laxman and Sharma were not required for the one-day series and returned home after the Test matches.

The ODI team flew home from Colombo on 30 August. Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and several members of the victorious ODI team arrived in Chennai's Anna International terminal from Sri Lanka on Saturday afternoon 30 August. They moved to the Kamaraj domestic airport to board connecting flights. Harbhajan flew out of Chennai next day after attending a function.

Time away from India

  46 days 

 (15 July to 30 August)

Finances

Accounts of the tour

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Postscript