India too strong for weak Australian side

It was always going to be a tough tour for the fourth Australian team that visited India in 1979-80. Without the Packer players, the visitors were probably the weakest of the Australians teams to come to India. During the previous winter they had been routed by five matches to one in the Ashes battle down under. In the absence of leading stars like Dennis Lillee, Jeff Thomson, Greg Chappell, Rodney Marsh, Rick McCosker, Len Pascoe, David Hookes, Doug Walters and Max Walker, the Australian side wore an emaciated look. India on the other hand had regrouped under the leadership of Sunil Gavaskar and started as favourites for the series.

By the end of the 2-1/2 month tour, India had won the six Test series 2-0 besides having the better of the drawn games in three of the four encounters. Never in India-Australia rubbers in this country has the superiority been so markedly in favour of the home team. But perhaps that was only to be expected, given the inexperience of the visiting side. Ten of the party of 15 had never toured before and all of them were new to Indian conditions.

India were easily the better side. Gavaskar was then at the peak of his powers and he and Chetan Chauhan formed a formidable opening pair. The presence of Dilip Vengsarkar at No 3 and Gundappa Viswanath at No 4 gave style and substance to the batting. Yashpal Sharma proved to be a sticky customer at No 5. Kapil Dev was already developing into one of the leading all rounders in the world and he and Karsan Ghavri formed an impressive new ball duo. Dilip Doshi had just arrived on the scene and he formed a pretty destructive spin attack with another `new boy' off spinner Shivlal Yadav even as S Venkatraghavan, the last of the spin quartet, was nearing the end of his Test career. Syed Kirmani was back as wicketkeeper after being surprisingly dropped for the tour of England and he proved his worth both in front of and behind the stumps. The side had a well settled look - as many as nine cricketers played in all six Tests - and were clearly capable of getting the better of better opposition as they proved while beating Pakistan later in the season. Against the weak Australian side, the Indians carried too many guns.

It became obvious very early in the series that whatever little the visitors had to offer was by way of batting and, more precisely, that of Kim Hughes and Alan Border. Hughes, the 25-year-old skipper displayed both skill and elegance in finishing with a tally of 594 runs at an average of 59.40. In 12 innings, he got one hundred and five half centuries, besides doing the best he could as captain. Border, then 24 and in only his second international season, got 521 runs at 43.41 with one century and three fifties. It was on this tour that the left hander showed that he was going to be a force to reckon with in coming years. Graham Yallop, the only other batsman with some class, had just one breathtaking innings, 167 in the fifth Test at Calcutta.

The lack of depth in the batting was one chink but the more serious weakness was the bowling. Rodney Hogg came with a big reputation having taken 41 wickets in his debut series in the Ashes contest the previous season but was a big disappointment capturing only 11 wickets in the six Tests at almost 54 apiece. Spinners Bruce Yardley, Jimmy Higgs and Peter Sleep were harshly treated and only left arm seamer Geoff Dymock emerged with some credit bagging 24 wickets in five Tests at 24 apiece. This included a match haul of 12 wickets in the third Test at Kanpur, one of the two which Australia lost.

The Indians had a great series, both in batting and bowling. Viswanath scored 518 runs at an average of 74 with two centuries. Gavaskar got 425 runs at 53, also with two hundreds. Two other frontline batsmen, Yashpal Sharma and Vengsarkar also got a hundred each while Kirmani got a three figure knock in the final Test at Mumbai after coming in as nightwatchman. Chauhan did not get a century but proved his worth by a number of valuable knocks in almost the Tests. Kapil Dev and Ghavri came up with useful contributions late in the order.

The bowling honours were shared by Kapil, Doshi and Yadav. The medium pacer took 28 wickets at 22.32 apiece, being particularly effective in his opening spells. Doshi and Yadav, carrying the brunt of the spin attack in their first series took 27 wickets in six Tests at 23.33 and 24 in five Tests at 24 respectively.