Tour of South Africa 2013-14           Captain: M S Dhoni

India's 68th Test tour

(December 2013-

          January 2014)

Sixth Test-playing tour of South Africa by India

      (previous tour 2010-11)

The BCCI complained that Cricket South Africa had announced a tour itinerary without consulting them.  Then the Indian Board’s decision to stage two extra home Test matches against West Indies cut into the time available. Relations between Cricket South Africa and the BCCI became sour as a three-Test itinerary preceded by seven one-dayers and two Twenty 20 matches was chopped down to a mere six matches.

Only when CSA agreed that their CEO Haroon Lorgat would not take part in future dealings concerning India was the tour confirmed. The revised schedule permitted only two days’ preparation on South African soil, and India were heavily defeated in both one-day internationals that could be completed. Following the death of former president Nelson Mandela the only practice match was shifted by a day but eventually could not be played anyway owing to heavy rainfall.

South Africa gained a 1-0 Test series win against India.  This was the first Test tour that India had made with none of the batting line-up that had served so well in the last twenty years: Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly, Laxman and Sehwag. But the key Indian batsmen Pujara and Kohli showed they were not shaken by the fast bowling pounding they had taken in the one-day series. While fast bowlers Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma took 4 wickets each when dismissing South Africa at Johannesburg, otherwise the bowling was too ordinary to dismiss the home side. The South Africans came within 8 runs of reaching a target of 458 and the match was left drawn. In the next Test at Durban the home side ran out comfortable winners by ten wickets.

Other Indian tours

Previous tours

Australia 2011-12

Sri Lanka 2012  cancelled

Next tour

New Zealand 2013-14

Next South African tour

  None scheduled

Members of the Test tour  party (17)

Opening batsmen: Shikhar Dhawan  Murali Vijay,

Middle-order batsmen: Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Ambati Rayudu.

Wicket-keepers:  M S Dhoni, W Saha

Spinners: Ravichandran Ashwin,  Pragyan Ohja, Ravindra Jadeja

Fast bowlers:Ishant Sharma, Zaheer Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Mohammad Shami

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 (2)

Bn  -  Bengal (2)

D   -  Delhi (3)

Hd  -  Hyderabad (1)

Jk  -  Jharkhand (1)

Mb  -  Mumbai (2)

Sa - Saurashtra (2)

TN  -  Tamil Nadu (2)

UP  - Uttar Pradesh (1)

Vb  -   Vidarbha (1)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

 (18 December 2013) :

      26 yrs  6 months

ODI: Member of one-day international squad

Test Appearances made before the tour

Zaheer Khan 88,  Dhoni 79,  I Sharma 51,  Ohja 24,  Kholi 20,  Ashwin 18,  Vijay 18,  Pujara 15,  Yadav 9, Bhuvneshwar Kumar 6,  Jadeja 5,  Dhawan 3,  Mohammad Shami 2,  RG Sharma 2,  Saha 2,  Rahane 1, Rayudu 0.

Tour Officials

Selectors

Sandeep Patil (West - chairman),  Saba Karim (East),  Vikram Rathore (North),  Rajinder Singh Hans (Central)  and  Roger Binny (South).  The selectors met in Vadodara.

Selection

Unavailable : Sachin Tendulkar retired after the Mumbai Test against West Indies. 

Test Tour Party Announced: 25 November 2013.

Omitted :  Amit Mishra,  Gautam Gambhir.  Although the selectors covered every other position with a reserve, they took only two opening batsmen.

Limited-overs squad announced:   Also on 25 November.

Time between selection and departure from India

   days

 (25 November - 1 December)

Travel

Mumbai  Q   Johannesburg

Departure for the sixteen members of the ODI squad was from the International Airport, Mumbai, late on Sunday 1 December 2013. They arrived in Johannesburg on the morning of 2 December, and the team bus took them to the Sandton Sun Hotel for the media conference.

The B.C.C.I. sent the Test specialists (Zaheer Khan, Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Wridhiman Saha and Pragyan Ojha) who were not part of the ODI squad, to South Africa early for acclimatisation.

Time spent in South Affrica

    29 days

(2 - 31 December)

On-tour selection committee

Duncan Fletcher (coach),  M S Dhoni (captain), 

Reinforcements

None

Original tour itinerary

 …announced by CSA on 9 July 2013. 

A shortened tour programme (see Results below) agreed between Cricket South Africa (CSA) and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was announced in late  October

Fixtures/Results

The tour was not confirmed until 21 October and the programme not agreed until 30 October.

† not first-class

§  ODI - Standard Bank series.

Time spent in South Africa before First Test:

  days

(2 - 18 December)

Test appearances on tour

2  -   Dhawan,  Dhoni,  Kohli,  Pujara,  Rahane,  Shami,  I Sharma,  R Sharma,  Vijay,  Zaheer Khan.

1  -   Ashwin,  Jadeja.

0  -   Kumar,  Ohja,  Rayudu,  Saha,  Yadav.

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

•    Virat Kohli scorred 119 in the first Innings at Johannesburg and 96 in the second innings

•    Pujara scored 153 at Johannesburg, adding 222 together with Kohli for the third wicket

•    Fast bowlers Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma took 4 wickets each dismissing South Africa at Johannesburg

•    Vijay scored 97 and Rahane 96 at Durban - so three batsmen were out in the nineties in the series.

•    Jadeja took six wickets for 138 runs at Durban

Tour Summary

Return to India

Johannesburg  Q  New Delhi

Limited-overs specialists Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Mohit Sharma and Amit Mishra returned ….

The tour had to end on 30 December to avoid the BCCI’s contract with sponsors Sahara extending into 2014.

The team landed at Mumbai International airport on 1 January arriving around midnight. While the team went to their designated hotel, Virat Kohli was picked up by girlfriend Anushka Sharma's chauffeur-driven BMW to spend New Year at her private party

Time away from India

     31 days  

(1 December to 1 January)

Finances

Cricket South Africa stood to lose R175 million because of the shortened series.

Accounts of the tour

Postscript

While the BCCI were happy with the performance of coach Duncan Fletcher, they had lost confidence in Joe Dawes and were looking for a new bowling coach.