Tour of India 2012-13             Captain: Michael Clarke

Ninetieth Test tour

Ninth Test-playing tour of India by Australia

(August - September 2011)

The team’s performance was so poor that they found themselves two-down in the Test series. But when players were asked to write down three ways in which they could improve their performance, the tour management’s over-reaction to four players not handing in their “homework”, resulted in four of them being suspended from the next Test.

Far from being ‘a line in the sand’, insecurity and tensions in the dressing room grew and made the coach even more remote from struggling players until he was sacked three months later.

India dominated the Test series apart from once when Australia’s first innings exceeded 400 at Mohali.  There was constant poor shot selection by the leading batsmen.

Other Australian Tours

Previous tour

To West Indies 2011-12

Next tour

England 2013

Next tour of India

  not scheduled

Members of the Test tour party (17)

Opening batsmen  David Warner, Ed Cowan, Phillip Hughes

Batsmen  Michael Clarke, Shane Watson, Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith

Wicket-keeper Matthew Wade

All-rounders Glenn Maxwell, Moises Henriques

Spinners   Nathan Lyon, Xavier Doherty, Ashton Agar

Fast bowlers  Mitchell Johnson, James Pattinson, Mitchell Starc, Peter Siddle, Jackson Bird.

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State representation

  Sheffield Shield teams

N   New South Wales (9)

Q  Queensland (1)

S   South Australia (1)

T   Tasmania (3)

V   Victoria (3)

W  Western Australia (0)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(22 February 2013) :

  26  yrs  10 months

Test Appearances made before the tour

Clarke 89,  Johnson 50,  Watson 38,  Siddle 37,  Hughes 20,  Lyon 19,  Warner 15,  Cowan 13,  Wade 9,  Pattinson 7,  Starc 7,  Khawaja 6,  Smith 5,  Bird 2,  Doherty 2,  Agar 0,  Henriques 0,  Maxwell 0.

Tour Officials

Selectors

John Inverarity (national selector),  Rodney Marsh,  Andy Bichel.

Selection

Unavailable :  Michael Hussey (retired),  Pat Cummins (lower back stress injury);  Michael Beer,  Mitchell Marsh and Andrew McDonald (all injured)

Test tour party announced:  31 January 2013.

Not selected:  Shane Marsh,  Ryan Harris,  Ben Hilfenhaus,  Trent Copeland,  Steve O’Keefe.

Limited overs squads announced:

Time between selection and departure from Australia

  7 days

 (31 January -  6 February)

Travel

Sydney  Q  Chennai

Members of the Test squad flew to India in three groups and only eleven of the seventeen-man squad had arrived by the time of the first match. Jackson Bird, Ed Cowan, Moises Henriques, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, James Pattinson, Peter Siddle and Steven Smith all departed from Australia and landed in Chennai on Thursday night, 7 February.  A second group - Glenn Maxwell, Ashton Agar and Matthew Wade - flew to India on Saturday.

They were all in India while the limited-overs series against West Indies was still on, the better to prepare themselves for Indian conditions. Michael Clarke, David Warner (injured thumb) and others who had played the one-day international against West Indies flew out of Sydney on Monday 11 February. 

Time spent on tour in India

 days

(7 February - March)

On-tour selection

Michael Clarke (captain),  Mickey Arthur (coach),  John Inverarity (on-tour selector)

  After the second Test, Rodney Marsh took over from Inverarity as the on-tour selector

Reinforcements

19 year-old Western Australia left-arm spinner Ashton Agar accompanied the squad in a development capacity but was drafted into the team for the first tour match.

David Warner joined the team late because of fracturing a thumb in net practice in Australia before the tour.

Matthew Wade injured his ankle playing basketball and only Philip Hughes was on tour as a wicket-keeping substitute, so Brad Haddin was flown in to cover for the third Test only.

Michael Clarke was ruled out of the final Test by a back injury and flew home early, Shane Watson returning to India to lead the side in the fourth Test at Delhi

Fixtures/Results

(GN) Guru Nanak College Ground          (M) MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai.

† not first-class

Time spent in India before First Test:    15 days

(7 February - 22 February)

Test appearances on tour

4  -   Cowan,  Hughes,  Siddle,  Warner, 

3  -   Clarke,  Henriques,  Lyon  Pattinson,  Wade,  Watson.

2  -   Doherty,  Maxwell,  Smith,  Starc.

1  -   Haddin,  Johnson

Highlights

•   Adding 151 for the fifth wicket with Clarke at Chennai, Moises Henriques (68) followed up in the 2nd innings with 81 not out, meaning he hit fifties in each inngs of his debut Test.

•   Fast bowler James Pattinson took 5-96 at Chennai and Peter Siddle 5-71 at Mohali

•   David Warner and Ed Cowan shared an opening partnership of 139 at Mohali (Chandigarh), after which Mitchell Starc scored 99, almost becoming the first Australian to score a Test century at no 9 since 1948.

•   Nathan Lyon took 7-94 at Delhi and two further wickets in the second innings.

•   Fast bowler Peter Siddle scored 50 and 51 in the final Test.

Tour Summary

Return to Australia

Delhi  Q  Sydney

Ashton Agar’s developmental spell with the team was extended. He returned to Australia after playing in the two warm-up matches.

Jackson Bird returned to Melbourne early on 26 February to have scans to diagnose his back pain, which confirmed he would be unable to rejoin the tour.

Shane Watson returned to Australia to be present at the birth of his new son who was born on 14 March. He flew back to Delhi on 18 March.

Michael Clarke and Brad Haddin flew home from Delhi on 23 March, with a stopover at Singapore, arriving back at Sydney Airport on the morning of Sunday 24 March,

The team came back from Delhi

Time away from Australia

  x days  

(6 February to 31 March)

Finances

Accounts of the tour

……..

Postscript

Micky Arthur, appointed in November 2011, ….