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| 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 | 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 | | | |
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