Indian cricket team in Australia in 1967–68

Indian cricket team in Australia in 1967-68
Date	23 December 1967 - 31 January 1968
Location	Australia
Result	Australia won the 4-Test series 4-0
Teams  Australia  India Captains Bob Simpson Bill Lawry Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi Chandu Borde Most runs Bob Cowper (485) Rusi Surti (367) Most wickets Bob Simpson (15) E. A. S. Prasanna (25)
← 1947–48 Series 1977-78 Series →

The India national cricket team toured Australia in the 1967–68 season and played a four-match Test series against Australia. Australia won the Test series 4-0.

In all first-class matches, the Indians lost to Western Australia and South Australia, and drew with Victoria, Tasmania and New South Wales. The first-class match against Queensland was abandoned without a ball being bowled.

The Indians went on after this tour to play four Test matches and two other games in New Zealand – see Indian cricket team in New Zealand in 1967-68.

Indian team[]

• Nawab of Pataudi (captain)
• Chandu Borde (vice-captain)
• Syed Abid Ali
• Bishan Bedi
• Bhagwat Chandrasekhar
• Ramakant Desai
• Farokh Engineer
• Indrajitsinhji
• M. L. Jaisimha
• Umesh Kulkarni
• Bapu Nadkarni
• Erapalli Prasanna
• Dilip Sardesai
• Ramesh Saxena
• Venkataraman Subramanya
• Rusi Surti
• Ajit Wadekar

The manager was Ghulam Ahmed.

India's squad of 16 members for the tour of Australia and New Zealand was announced on 8 November 1967. Five changes were made from the side that toured England earlier that year — Subrata Guha, Sadanand Mohol, Budhi Kunderan, Hanumant Singh and S. Venkataraghavan were replaced by Ramakant Desai, Umesh Kulkarni, Indrajitsinhji, Bapu Nadkarni and Syed Abid Ali.^[1]

All the players had played Tests before except for Abid Ali and Kulkarni, who made their debuts in the Tests against Australia. Jaisimha was not in the original team, but was added to the side after the Second Test.^[2]

Tour games[]

One-day: Western Australia Country v Indians[]

22 November 1967 Scorecard

Indians  259/4d (41.7 overs)	v	Western Australia Country 186/5 (39 overs)
Ajit Wadekar 96 John McCormack 1/16 (2 overs)		Merv Hosking 52 V. Subramanya 3/60 (10 overs)

Match drawn Harvey, Perth Umpires: J. H. Blyth and W. I. Carter

• Western Australia Country won the toss and elected to field.

The Western Australia Country side was captained by Merv Hosking who won the toss and sent the Indians to bat first. Ajit Wadekar top-scored for the Indians making 96, which included 16 boundaries. They declared the innings after scoring 259 in almost three hours. In reply, Western Australia Country ended at 5/189 at stumps. Hosking and Barry Pascoe put together 88 runs for the first wicket.^[3]

Test series[]

First test[]

23–28 December 1967 Scorecard

Australia	v	India
335 (92.1 overs) Bob Cowper 92 Abid Ali 6/55 (17 overs)		307 (71.4 overs) Farokh Engineer 89 Alan Connolly 4/54 (12.4 overs)
369 (88.5 overs) Bob Cowper 108 Rusi Surti 5/74 (20.1 overs)		251 (60.2 overs) V. Subramanya 75 David Renneberg 5/39 (14.2 overs)

Australia won by 146 runs Adelaide Oval, Adelaide Umpires: Colin Egar (Aus) and Lou Rowan

• Australia won the toss and decided to bat.
• Paul Sheahan and John Gleeson (both Aus), and Syed Abid Ali and Umesh Kulkarni (both Ind) all made their debut in Tests.
• 24 December was a rest day.

Second Test[]

30 Dec-3 Jan 1968 Scorecard

India	v	Australia
173 (57.4 overs) MAK Pataudi 75 Garth McKenzie 7/66 (21.4 overs)		529 (105.3 overs) Ian Chappell 151 Erapalli Prasanna 6/141 (34 overs)
352 (84.7 overs) Ajit Wadekar 99 Bob Simpson 3/44 (14 overs)

Australia won by an innings and 4 runs Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne Umpires: CJ Egar, LP Rowan

• India won the toss and decided to bat

Third Test[]

19–24 January 1968 scorecard

Australia	v	India
379 (112.2 overs) Doug Walters 93 Rusi Surti 3/102 (26 overs)		279 (100 overs) Nawab of Pataudi 74 Bob Cowper 3/31 (15 overs)
294 (83.4 overs) Ian Redpath 79 Erapalli Prasanna 6/104 (33.4 overs)		355 (109.6 overs) M. L. Jaisimha 101 Bob Cowper 4/104 (39.6 overs)

Australia won by 39 runs Brisbane Cricket Ground, Brisbane Umpires: CJ Egar, LP Rowan

• India won the toss and decided to field

Fourth Test[]

26–31 January 1968 Scorecard

Australia	v	India
317 (86.6 overs) Doug Walters 94 Erapalli Prasanna 3/62 (20.6 overs)		268 (85.1 overs) Syed Abid Ali 78 Eric Freeman 4/86 (18.1 overs)
292 (85.3 overs) Bob Cowper 165 Prasanna 4/96 (29.3 overs)		197 (73.6 overs) Syed Abid Ali 81 Bob Simpson 5/59 (23 overs)

Australia won by 144 runs Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney Umpires: CJ Egar, LP Rowan

• India won the toss and decided to field

References[]

Annual reviews[]

• Playfair Cricket Annual 1968
• Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 1969

Further reading[]

• Bill Frindall, The Wisden Book of Test Cricket 1877-1978, Wisden, 1979
• Chris Harte, A History of Australian Cricket, Andre Deutsch, 1993
• Ray Robinson, On Top Down Under, Cassell, 1975
• Ramachandra Guha, A Corner of a Foreign Field - An Indian History of a British Sport, Picador, 2001

External links[]

• Tour home at ESPNcricinfo
• India in Australia and New Zealand 1967/68 at CricketArchive (subscription required)