Tour of Sri Lanka 2010                 Captain: M S Dhoni

India's 63rd Test tour

(July - August 2010)

Seventh Test-playing tour of Sri Lanka by India

    (previous tour 2008)

Six of the team had been playing in Sri Lanka a fortnight before the tour when India won the Asia Cup, beating Sri Lanka in the final. Media reports that the Indian players sent a joint-letter complaining about their heavy playing schedule were denied by the BCCI.

India won an exciting third Test to square the series.

A one-day tri-series in Sri Lanka, with New Zealand as the third team, took place, again in bowler-friendly conditions at Dambulla, after the Test series. India reached the final where none of the Indian batsmen on trial could give support to the experienced Dhoni and Sehwag, as India lost heavily.

Other Indian tours

Previous tour

Bangladesh 2009-10

Next tour

South Africa 2010-11

Next tour of Sri Lanka

  2012 Tests cancelled

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, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh.

Wicket-keepers:Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Wriddhiman Saha

Spinners:Harbhajan Singh, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha.

New-ball bowlers: Sreesanth, Ishant Sharma, Abhimanyu Mithun

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)

H - Hyderabad (2)

Hy - Haryana (1)

Jk  -  Jarkhand (1)

K - Karnataka (1)

Ke - Kerala (1)

Mb - Mumbai (1)

Pj - Punjab (2)

TN - Tamil Nadu (2)

UP  - Uttar Pradesh (1)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

   (18 July 2010) :

     27 yrs  6 months

ODI   one-day squad for tri-series

Test Appearances made before the tour

Tendulkar 162,  Dravid 137,  Laxman 108,  Harbhajan Singh 80,  Sehwag 72, Zaheer 68,  Dhoni 40,  Yuvraj 31,  Gambhir 27,  Karthik 22,  Ishant Sharma 19,  Sreesanth 16,  Mishra 6,  Ohja 2,  Vijay 2,  Tyagi 0.

Tour Officials

There was no fielding coach.

Selectors

Kris Srikkanth (chairman),  Yashpal Sharma,   Narendra Hirwani,  Raja Venkat,  Surendra Bhave  and M S Dhoni (captain) met at Chennai on Saturday 26 June.

Selection

The Asia Cup squad was picked in New Delhi on 7 June.  Dinesh Karthik joined the squad later when Sehwag pulled a hamstring.

Test tour party announced:  26 June 2010.

Not selected:  Cheteshwar Pujara.

Withdrawals :  Zaheer Khan on 6 July.  He went to Johannesburg for rehabilitation to a shoulder injury. Karnataka fast bowler Abhimanyu Mithun replaced him.

Sreesanth withdrew on 12 July;  he suffered a ligament tear in his left knee and Munaf Patel replaced him.

Tri-series squad announced :  31 July

Munaf Patel was added to the ODI squad when Ishant Sharma had a knee injury and Abhi Mithun suffered heat stroke

Time between selection and departure from India

  13 days

 (26 June - 9 July)

Travel

Mumbai  Q   London

Most team members arrived in Chennai on 8 July ready to fly out from Anna International Airport the next day.  Harbhajan Singh who went directly from Mumbai to the airport was not admitted to the flight; because the team had a group ticket, he could not show an individual ticket for the flight.

Newly-married Dhoni was given permission to join the touring party later and flew on 10 July.

The B.C.C.I. wanted the team to have nine days before the first Test to prepare properly.

Test squad players Abhimanyu Mithun and Wriddhiman Saha flew to Sri Lanka direct from the India A tour in  England on Saturday 10 July, along with Jaidev Unadkat who was required as a practice bowler. Umesh Yadav joined up with the Test team on Sunday.

Time spent in Sri Lanka

  51 days  

(9 July  to 29 August)

Reinforcements

Jaidev Unadkat and Umesh Yadav were sent over to gain experience and serve as net bowlers in the Test series

Fixtures/Results

There was a two-week interval between the Asia Cup final and the start of the Test tour

§  one-day international

 (Asia Cup and tri-series)

† not first-class

Time spent in Sri Lanka before First Test:

(excluding Asia Cup)

 9 days

(9 July - 18 July)

Test appearances on tour

3  -   Dhoni,  Dravid,  Laxman,  Mithun,  Ohja,  Sehwag,  I Sharma,  Tendulkar.

2  -   Harbhajan,  Raina,  Vijay

1 -    Gambhir,  Mishra,  Yuvraj.

0 -    Patel,  Saha.

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

•    Sehwag made two scores of 109, one in the first Test and one in the third.

•    Sehwag also topped India’s bowling averages with 7 wickets at an average of 25.57.

•    Suresh Raina made his Test debut at Colombo (SSC) after playing in 98 one-day internationals for India.

•    Tendulkar made his 169th Test appearance and so became the most Test capped player of all time.

•    Tendulkar scored 203, Raina 120 -on debut - and Sehwag 99 as India piled up 707 runs on a placid pitch at Colombo SSC.

Tour Summary

Return to India

Mumbai  Q   London

The cricketers arrived home at Chennai on Sunday morning 29 August 2010 and went to their respective cities, except Dhoni who, as captain of Chennai Super Kings, attended a send-off ceremony before the IPL in South Africa.

Time away from India

  51 days   

(9 July  to 29 August)

Finances

Postcript