Home
AUSTRALIA
BANGLADESH
ENGLAND
INDIA
NEW ZEALAND
PAKISTAN
SOUTH AFRICA
SRI LANKA
WEST INDIES
ZIMBABWE
Contact Us

Test Cricket Tours - India to Australia 2007-08

 

 

Tour of Australia 2007-08        Captain: Anil Kumble

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

India 59th Test tour

 

Ninth Test-playing tour of Australia by India

 

 

 

 (December 2007 -

             March 2008)

 

 

India, without a coach since Greg Chappell stepped down after the World Cup in April 2007, appointed Gary Kirsten who joined the tour midway through.

The International Cricket Council's match referee Mike Procter said he was satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that Harbhajan Singh called Andrew Symonds "a monkey" during the second Test at Sydney and gave Harbhajan a three match ban, at which the Indian cricket board (BCCI)  said it would suspend its team's tour of Australia. There was uncertainty for some time whether the players would be prepared to continue with the tour. Kumble’s accustation of one team not playing in the right spirit prompted the press to coin the term ‘Bollyline’.  The ICC dropped umpire Steve Bucknor from the third Test after complaints about his poor performance at Sydney. The Indians were galvanised into their first-ever victory at Perth before a high-scoring draw at Adelaide gave Australia the series.

On appeal the racism charge against Harbhajan Singh was not proven and he was instead charged with an offence of abuse and insult and fined half his match fee.

'The Australian' newspaper aptly summed up the tour— “A summer of spite ends in Indian glory”, because the Indians won the one-day Commonwealth Bank series. However, there were concerns about the Indian Board flexing its muscles and a loss of authority by the ICC.

 

 

Other Indian tours

 

Previous tour

 England 2007

 

Next tour

Sri Lanka 2008-09

 

 

Next Australian tour

2011-12

 

 

 

Members of the Test tour  party (16)

 

 

Opening baysmen : Wasim Jaffer, Virender Sehwag.

Middle orderatsmen: Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh

Wicket-keepers: Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Dinesh Karthik

Spinners:  Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh

Fast bowlers:   Zaheer Khan, Rudra Pradeep Singh, Irfan Pathan, Ishant Sharma, Pankaj Singh.

 

 

 

 

M S Dhoni

Jk

26

RHB    WK   deputy captain

ODI

 

R S Dravid

K

34

RHB

 

 

S C Ganguly

Bn

35

LHB

 

 

Harbhajan Singh

Pj

27

OB

ODI

 

K D Karthik

TN

22

second WK

ODI

 

A Kumble

K

37

LBG   captain

 

 

V V S Laxman

Hd

33

RHB

 

 

I K Pathan

Ba

23

LFM

ODI

 

V Sehwag

D

29

RHB  opener   (OB)

ODI

 

I Sharma

D

19

RFM

ODI

 

P Singh

Rj

22

RMF

 

 

R P Singh

UP

22

LFM

(ODI)

 

S R Tendulkar

Mb

33

RHB

ODI

 

Wasim Jaffer

Mb

29

RHB  opener

 

 

Yuvraj Singh

Pj

25

LHB   (SLA)

ODI

 

Zaheer Khan

Ba

29

LFM

 

 

 

Joined the tour party for the

P P Chawla

ODI

  one-day internationals

G Gambhir

ODI

 

 

 

S K Raina

ODI

 

 

 

R G Sharma

ODI

 

 

 

P S S Kumar

ODI

 

 

 

S Sreesanth 

ODI

 

 

 

R Uthappa

ODI

 

 

 

 

 

 

Representation of teams:    

 

Ba - Baroda (2)

Bn - Bengal (1)

D - Delhi (2)

H - Hyderabad (1)

Jk  -  Jharkhand (1)

K - Karnataka (2)

Mb - Mumbai (2)

Pj - Punjab (2)

Rj  -  Rajasthan (1)

TN  -  Tamil Nadu (1)

UP  - Uttar Pradesh (1)

 

 

  

 

  

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(26 December 2007) :

    27 yrs  9 months

 

 

ODI :  Member of the VB Series one-day international squad

(ODI) withdrawn from ODI squad.

 

 

 

Test Appearances made before the tour

 

 

Tendulkar 142,  Kumble 121,  Dravid 115,  Ganguly 99,  Laxman 86,  Harbhajan 60,  Sehwag 52,  Zaheer Khan 52,  Pathan 26,  Jaffer  25,  Dhoni 22,  Yuvraj Singh 20,  D Kharthik 19,  RP Singh 7, VRV Singh 5,   Ishant Sharma 2,  Pankaj Singh 0.

 

 

 

 

Team Officials

 

Chetan Chauhan

Team manager   (Tests)

Dr Vimal Soni

Team manager (ODIs)

Lal Rajput

Interim Coach 

M V Sridhar

Assistant Manager

Greg King

Fitness trainer 

John Gloster

Physiotherapist

Venkatesh Prasad

Bowling coach

Robin Singh (sr)

Fielding coach

Paddy Upton (?)

Mental Conditioning coach

 

On 1 December Lalchand Rajput, currently the coach of the Indian team, was appointed assistant coach for the tour.  Gary Kirsten officially started as coach on 1st March 2008. However, he travelled to Australia beforehand during the Test series.

Assistant manager Dr M V Sridhar was vice-president of Hyderabad Cricket Association. 

ODI manager Vimal Soni, appointed on 16 December, was vice-president of the Rajasthan Cricket Association.

 

 

 

 

 

Selectors

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Selection

 

On Wednesday 5 December  Anil Kumble was retained as captain for the Australia tour.

Injuries to Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel and RP Singh forced a delay in the selection of the squad until 12 December, after the Bangalore Test. Instead, the selectors picked a list of 24 probables for the Australia tour:

Anil Kumble, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Wasim Jaffer, Dinesh Karthik, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, V V S Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Sourav Ganguly, R P Singh, Munaf Patel, Zaheer Khan, Vikram Singh, Pankaj Singh, Ishant Sharma, Murali Kartik, Harbhajan Singh, Piyush Chawla, Aakash Chopra, Gautam Gambhir, Ranadeb Bose, Irfan Pathan, Ajit Agarkar, Parthiv Patel.

 

Unavailable :  Sreesanth (shoulder injury)  Gautam Gambhir (shoulder).

 

Tour Party Announced : 12 December 2007.
Sehwag was included in the team, although not among the list of 24 probables, because Gautam Gambhir dropped out
Omitted :  Akash Chopra,  Murali Kartik,  Munaf Patel (lack of fitness).

 

One day squad announced : 20 January 2008.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt & wk), Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag, Dinesh Karthik, Robin Uthappa, Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Irfan Pathan, Praveen Kumar, RP Singh, Ishant Sharma, Sreesanth, Harbhajan Singh, Piyush Chawla

Manoj Tiwary, Yusuf Pathan and Munaf were placed on standby to join the ODI squad in case of injuries.

 

 

Time between selection and departure from India     5 days

 (12 - 17 December)

 

 

 

 

Travel

 

The 16-member team assembled in Mumbai on 16 December 2007 and left by a morning flight next day, touching down at Singapore before flying on to Melbourne on Tuesday 18 December.

 

Piyush Chawla, Gautam Gambhir, Praveen Kumar, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Sreesanth, Robin Uthappa all flew in for the ODI tri-series.

 

Time spent in Australia

   78 days

(18 December - 5 March)

 

 

 

 

On-tour selection committee

 

 

 

 

 

Reinforcements

 

V R V Singh

Ba

23

LFM

ODI

 

Zaheer Khan had a heel injury and was unable to play after the first Test or in the ODI series, so Vikram Singhwas added to the Test squad and he flew in on 4 January.

For the one-day series Munaf Patel replaced injured seamer Rudra Pratap Singh (hamstring injury) and Manoj Tiwary was selected as back up for Yuvraj Singh (knee injury) who remained with the squad.

 

 

 

 

Fixtures/Results

 

 

St Kilda, Melbourne

Victoria

Drawn

MELBOURNE

AUSTRALIA  First Test

LOST 337 r

SYDNEY

AUSTRALIA  Second Test

LOST 122 r

† Canberra

Australian Capital Territory

Drawn

WACA, PERTH

AUSTRALIA  Third Test

WON 72 r

ADELAIDE

AUSTRALIA  Fourth Test

DRAWN

  Melbourne

Australia (20/20)

Lost 9 w

§ Brisbane

Australia (1st ODI)

No result

§ Brisbane

Sri Lanka (2nd ODI)

No result

§ Melbourne

Australia (3rd ODI)

Won 5 w

§ Canberra

Sri Lanka (4th ODI)

Lost 8 w

§ Adelaide

Australia (5th ODI)

Lost 50 r

§ Adelaide

Sri Lanka (6th ODI)

Won 2 w

§ Sydney

Australia (7th ODI)

Lost 18 r

§ Hobart

Sri Lanka (8th ODI)

Won 7 w

§ Sydney

Australia (1st ODI final)

Won 6 w

§ Brisbane

Australia (2nd ODI final)

Won 9 r

§ Adelaide(7 March)

Australia (3rd ODI final)

 cancelled

 

 

 

 

† not first-class

§  one-day international

  Twenty 20 international

 

 

Time spent in Australia before First Test:

 8 days

(18 - 26 December)

 

 

 

 

Test appearances on tour

 

4 -   Dhoni,  Dravid,  Ganguly,  Kumble,  Laxman,  RP Singh,  Tendulkar

3  -  Harbhajan,  Jaffer,  I Sharma

2  -  Pathan,  Sehwag,  Yuvraj Singh

1 -   Zaheer Khan.

0 -   Kharthik,  Pankaj Singh.

 

 

 

 

Highlights

 

    Sourav Ganguly became the eighth Indian cricketer to play in 100 Tests

    India came back to win at Adelaide after conceding 400 for 5 on the first day

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tour Summary

 

 

 P

W

L

D

Aban

Canc

Test Matches

  4

2

1

1

-

-

Other first-class matches

  1

0

0

1

-

-

† Minor matches

  1

0

0

1

-

-

⊕ 20 / 20 internationals

  1

0

1

0

-

-

§ One-day internationals

11

5

3

2

-

1

All Matches

18

7

5

5

-

1

 

 

 

 

 

Return to India

 

Zaheer Khan returned to India early with a heel injury on 3 January.  Manager Chetan Chauhan returned at the end of the Test series

Dravid, Ganguly, Jaffer, Kumble, Laxman, Pankaj  Singh, Zaheer Khan all left after the Test matches at the end of January. 

After winning the Commonwealth Bank tri-series, the team arrived home in Mumbai on 6 March from where they were flown to New Delhi and given a grand reception at the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium.

 

 

Time away from India

  80 days   (17 December to 6 March)

 

 

 

 

Finances

 

 

 

 



Powered by Create