Test Cricket Tours - India to Australia 1980-81

Test Cricket Tours - India to Australia 1980-81

Tour of Australia & New Zealand 1980-81 Captain: Sunil Gavaskar

Nineteenth Test tour

Fourth official Test tour of Australia by India

Third official Test tour of New Zealand by India

( November 1980 –

March 1981)

Australia was at full strength now that Packer World Series Cricket had ended. This tour of Australia was deferred from 1979-80 to allow England to participate in the first post-WSC Test series and a triangular tournament of one-day internationals, so the Indians visited in 1980-81. The schedules imposed by the requirements of television since the settlement with World Series Cricket caused difficulty for players switching from one format to another This is well illustrated by the Indians’ tour programme, as shown in ‘Highlights’ below.

Australia seemed to be coasting to a comfortable series victory needing only 143 runs to win at Melbourne when they were dismissed by Kapil Dev and Doshi’s bowling for 83, their lowest total against India.

Gavaskar, back again as captain, came close to forfeiting this Test match when, after he and Chetan Chauhan had put on an opening partnership of 165, Gavaskar was very unhappy with a leg-before decision against him. He told Chetan to leave the ground along with him, and the two had almost reached the gate when the manager intervened and sent Chauhan back.

In New Zealand, the Indians fared poorly against seam bowling in two Tests and Bracewell’s spin in the third. New Zealand completed a win only at Wellington but this was enough to gain their first victory in a series against India.

Other Indian tours

Previous tour

England 1979

Next tour

England 1982

Next Australian tour

1985-86

Next New Zealand tour

1989-90

Members of the Test tour party (16)

Opening batsmen: : Sunil Gavaskar, Tirumalai Srinivasan, Chetan Chauhan

Middle-order batsmen: Dilip Vengsarkar, Sandeep Patil, Gundappa Viswanath, Yashpal Sharma.

Wicket-keepers: Syed Kirmania, Bharat Reddy

Spinners: Dilip Doshi, Kirti Azad, Shivlal Yadav

Fast bowlers: Kapil Dev, Yograj Singh, Kharsan Ghavri, Roger Binny.

K B J Azad	D	22	RHB OB

R M H Binny	K	25	RHB RM

C P S Chauhan	D	33	RHB opener

D R Doshi	Bn	33	SLA

S M Gavaskar	B	31	RHB opener captain

K D Ghavri	B	29	LHB LFM

Kapil Dev	Hy	21	RFM

S M H Kirmani	K	31	WK

S M Patil	B	24	RHB

B Reddy	TN	26	WK

T E Srinivasan	TN	30	RHB opener

D B Vengsarkar	B	24	RHB

G R Viswanath	K	30	RHB vice-captain

N S Yadav	Hd	23	OB

M Yashpal Sharma	Pj	26	RHB

B Yograj Singh	Hy	22	RFM

Representation of teams:

Bn - Bengal (1)

B - Bombay (4)

D - Delhi (2)

Hy - Haryana (2)

Hd - Hyderabad (1)

K - Karnataka (3)

Pj - Punjab (1)

TN - Tamil Nadu (2)

Average age of players at time of first Test match (2 January 1981):

27 yrs 5 months.s

Test Appearances made before the tour

Viswanath 69, Gavaskar 63, Kirmani 42, Vengsarkar 36, Ghavri 35, Chauhan 34, Kapil Dev 26, Yashpal 16, Doshi 13, Yadav 11, Binny 7, Reddy 4, Patil 3, Kirti Azad 0, Srinivasan 0, Yograj 0, Shastri 0.

Team Officials

Wing-Cmdr S A K Durrani	Tour Manager
R G Nadkarni	Assistant manager

Selectors

P R Umrigar (chairman), M L Jaisimha, V L Mehra, D G Phadkar, Chandu Sarwate.

Selection

Unavailable: None

Tour Party Announced : 27 September 1980

Not selected : S Venkataraghaven.

Time between selection and departure from India

52 days (27 September - 18 November)

Travel

There was a ten-day physical fitness camp in Delhi under Dr Tandon, then the team flew out of Madras on 18 November 1980, via Singapore, to Perth.

The Indian team flew out of Melbourne and arrived in Auckland on 12 February for their New Zealand tour.

Time spent in Australia

85 days (19? November - 12 February)

and in New Zealand 36 days (12 Feb - 20 March)

On-tour selection committee

Sunil Gavaskar (captain), Gundappa Viswanath (vice-captain), Durrani (manager), Bapu Nadkarni (assistant manager)

Gavaskar rested from the captaincy in the match against Queensland. When Viswanath and Gavaskar both took a game off for the match against Tasmania, Chauhan took over as captain

Reinforcements

R J Shastri

RHB SLA

Shastri was called up after Doshi fractured his instep playing against Victoria. He hobbled through the third Test with the injury undiagnosed. Yadav had also broken a toe on his left foot. Neither of these two players returned home and both played again on the tour.

Fixtures/Results

WACA, Perth	Western Australia	Drawn
† WACA, Perth	Western Australia	Won 71 r
† Geraldton	Western Australia Country	Lost 6 w
Adelaide	South Australia	Lost 43 r
† Whyalla	South Australia Country	Won 6 w
§ Melbourne	Australia (1st ODI)	Won 66 r
§ WACA, Perth	New Zealand (2nd ODI)	Won 5 r
Hobart	Tasmania	Drawn
† Launceston	Tasmania	Lost 3 w
§ Sydney	Australia (3rd ODI)	Lost 9 w
§ Brisbane	New Zealand (4th ODI)	Lost 3 w
§ Adelaide	New Zealand (5th ODI)	Won 6 r
§ Brisbane	Queensland	Drawn
BRISBANE	AUSTRALIA First Test	LOST inns 4 r
§ Sydney	Australia (6th ODI)	Lost 9 w
§ Melbourne	New Zealand (7th ODI)	Lost 10 w
§ Melbourne	Australia (8th ODI)	Lost 7 w
† Canberra	Australian Capital Territory	Drawn
§ Sydney	Australia (9th ODI)	Lost 27 r
§ Brisbane	New Zealand (10th ODI)	Lost 22 r
† Portland	Victoria Country	Won 64 r
ADELAIDE	AUSTRALIA Second Test	DRAWN
Geelong	Victoria	Won 10 w
† Ballarat	Victoria Country	Drawn
MELBOURNE	AUSTRALIA Third Test	WON 59 r

§ Auckland	New Zealand (1st ODI)	Lost 78 r
§ Hamilton	New Zealand (2nd ODI)	Lost 57 r
Napier	Central Districts	Drawn
WELLINGTON	NEW ZEALAND First Test	LOST 62 r
Dunedin	Otago	Won inns 14 r
CHRISTCHURCH	NEW ZEALAND Second Test	DRAWN
AUCKLAND	NEW ZEALAND Third Test	DRAWN
† Suva	Fiji	Won 58 r
† Lautoka	Fiji	Won 220 r

† not first-class

Time spent in Australia before First Test:

44 days

(19? November - 2 January)

Test appearances on tour

6 - Chauhan, Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Kirmani, Patil, Vengsarkar, Viswanath.

5 - Doshi.

4 - Ghavri, Yashpal.

3 - Shastri, Yadav.

2 - Binny.

1 - Kirti Azad, Srinivasan, Yograj Singh.

0 - Reddy.

Highlights

• The duration of each match in sequence caused by changing formats was :

3-day, 1-day, 1, 4, 1, 1, 1, 3, 1, 1, 1, 1, 4, 5, 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1, 5, 4, 2, 5, 1, 1, 3, 5, 3, 5, 5, 2. 1.

• A brilliant 174 by Sandeep Patil at Adelaide was India’s highest score against Australia.

• Ghavri and Yadav survived for 9 overs and 31 minutes to save the match at Adelaide.

• India went on to win at Melbourne and halve the series, dismissing Australia for 83 (Kapil Dev 5-28).

Tour Summary

	P	W	L	D	Aban
Test Matches	6	1	2	3	-
Other first-class matches	7	2	1	4	-
Minor matches	9	5	2	2	-
One-day internationals	12	3	9	0	-
All Matches	34	11	14	9	-

Return to India

The touring party had arrived in New Zealand at Auckland on 12 February. It departed from there to Sydney on 20 March, and on to a brief tour of Fiji. Patil went directly back to Bombay, where he arrived on 22 March for treatment to a back injury.

The team landed at Santa Cruz Airport, Bombay, flying again via Sydney, on 28 March.

After two days of rest, they were flying off again, to Sharjah to play in a benefit match for Asif Iqbal.

Time away from India

130 days (18 November to 28 March)

Published acounts

in “Sandy Storm” by Sandeep Patil

“Test Cricket: Australia vs New Zealand and India” Richie Benaud (Sydney, 1981)