The India national cricket team toured Australia in the 1947–48 season to play a five-match Test series against Australia. Australia won the series 4–0, with one match drawn.

This was India's inaugural tour of Australia and it was also the first tour by a team representing the newly independent India. Independence had been finalised only two months before the tour began.

As evident from the scoreline, the Australian team greatly outclassed the Indians, who had some good individual performances to their credit. However, they did not put up much resistance as a team, with their batting failing to make any impression on the Australians. The only silver lining for India in terms of match results was their two victories in the First Class Matches.

Touring party A sub-committee under the chairmanship of Anthony de Mello was formed to recommend to the BCCI the India team to tour Australia the following season. The touring party comprising 17 players was announced 17 March 1947. A series of games were played prior to the selection to select a team for the tour that included the following day. For the touring squad, Vijay Merchant was named the captain and Lala Amarnath, his deputy. Pankaj Gupta was named the tour manager. Merchant had to drop out in September due to issues with his fitness; also Rusi Modi for the same reason. Amarnath was subsequently named the captain. Fazal Mahmood was dropped out as he joined Pakistan cricket team and Syed Mushtaq Ali was also dropped out in early October. Chandu Sarwate, Kanwar Rai Singh, Ranvirsinhji and C. R. Rangachari were named as their replacements on 6 October, while Hazare was named the vice-captain. The squad left for Australia on 8 October and arrived on 10 October in Darwin.

The team members were: Lala Amarnath, Southern Punjab, captain & all-rounder Vijay Hazare, Baroda, Vice-captain & batsman Hemu Adhikari, Baroda, batsman Amir Elahi, Baroda, leg break bowler Jenni Irani, Sindh, wicket-keeper Gogumal Kishenchand, Kathiawar, batsman Vinoo Mankad, Gujarat, opening batsman; all-rounder Gul Mohammad, Baroda, medium bowler C. S. Nayudu, Holkar, leg break bowler Dattu Phadkar, Bombay, all-rounder; fast medium bowler Kanwar Rai Singh, Southern Punjab, batsman C. R. Rangachari, Madras, fast-medium bowler Khandu Rangnekar, Bombay, batsman Ranvirsinhji, Nawanagar, opening batsman Chandu Sarwate, Holkar, opening batsman Probir Sen, Bengal, wicket-keeper Ranga Sohoni, Maharashtra, all-rounder; fast medium bowler

First-class matches In addition to the Test series, the tourists played nine other first-class matches against Western Australia (2 games – the tour opener and the last game of the tour); South Australia; Victoria; New South Wales; Australia XI; Queensland; and Tasmania (2 matches). India won two and lost three of these matches, the other four being drawn.

Western Australia v Indians

South Australia v Indians

Victoria v Indians

New South Wales v Indians

Australian XI v Indians

Queensland v India

Queensland Country v Indians

Western New South Wales v Indians

Southern New South Wales v Indians

Tasmania v Indians

Tasmania v Indians

South Australia Country v Indians

Victoria Country v Indians

Western Australia v Indians

Test series summary 1st Test at Brisbane Cricket Ground – Australia won by an innings and 226 runs 2nd Test at Sydney Cricket Ground – match drawn 3rd Test at Melbourne Cricket Ground – Australia won by 233 runs 4th Test at Adelaide Oval – Australia won by an innings and 16 runs 5th Test at Melbourne Cricket Ground – Australia won by an innings and 177 runs

1st Test

Match background

The Indian team had played six first-class matches prior to this match, and they had a below-par win–loss ratio of one win and two losses, both being innings defeats. Australia, though, had a remarkable record in their last ten test series, winning eight of them, and three out of a total three series after the war. Their win–loss record was exemplary as well, winning 29 and losing only 7, out of 45 tests.Australia-Records-Test matches-Series results However, the Indian team had reason to believe that they could punch above their weight, as they had unearthed in Vinoo Mankad, a talented all-rounder, who had taken 39 wickets in those six matches, and had also scored 516 runs from 11 innings at an average of 46.90, and their captain Lala Amarnath's good run with the bat and the emergence of a future batting stalwart for India, Vijay Hazare, made India's prospects look a little brighter. However, Australia's captain, Don Bradman was a major stumbling block in India's path. At the start of the series his record was: 42 test matches, 5773 runs, Average of 97.84.Statistics-Statsguru-DG Bradman Worryingly, for the touring side, He had already scored heavily against the Indian attack for the Australian XI outfit against India, an imposing 172. So his presence meant definite trouble for Lala Amarnath's side.

Match Report

The Brisbane pitch was quite benign and did not trouble the Australians, who chose to bat first after winning the toss. The Australian top order were in full control of the match from the start, stringing partnerships effectively. Don Bradman scored 185, piling on runs and misery on the Indian bowlers, who toiled in vain on a pitch that did not support them. He anchored partnerships with the other batsmen, and even when he ran out of partners, Wisden noted, "...but completely demoralised the bowlers by punishing methods which brought runs at a terrific rate." his knock contained twenty fours. Australia ended the first day with their scorecard reading: 273/3, and Bradman being unbeaten on 160.

In the second day, only one hour of play was possible due to rain, and Australia went through the scheduled hour of play without losing a wicket, and adding 36 runs more. Surprisingly, a large attendance of 11,000 people came to watch the day's play. The third day of the match saw yet another burst of rain, which saturated the pitch. Bradman had been dismissed by then for a two-hundred-and-eighty-five-minute vigil that yielded 185 runs, placed Australia on a safe perch at 382 for 8. Realizing that the uncovered pitch could be advantageous for Australia's bowlers, Bradman declared; leaving the Indian side the daunting prospect of negotiating, what, in Wisden's words, was a "treacherous" pitch.

The Indian batsmen, who were accustomed to "...the fast, hard pitches in their own country...", could not cope up with the Australian bowling, and especially struggled against the bowling of Ernie Toshack, who exploited the conditions in a versatile manner, and in an extremely short spell of nineteen balls, returned remarkable figures of 5 wickets for a solitary run. The Indians crumbled to 58 all out.

Trailing by 324, the Indians had to climb a mountain to evade a huge innings defeat, but were unable to do so, as none of their batsmen except Chandu Sarwate, offered any resistance. Sarwate, batted for two hours and forty minutes-160 minutes, to graft a determined 26. However, the other Indians again crumbled in the face of some quality pace, again, by Toshack himself (he took 6 wickets for 29 runs), and collapsed to be 98 all out, thus, Australia wrapped up the match, inflicting an innings-and-226-runs drubbing on the Indians. This defeat, Wisden noted could have been confidence-sapping for the Indians.

2nd Test

Match Background

This match was marred by rain, as only ten hours of play was possible in six days of play, out of which three days' worth of play was washed out, literally. The rain-affected "sticky dog" of a pitch proved terrible for batting, with none of the two teams managing even a score of 200. The Indian team squad changed slightly, fielding two debutants, Dattu Phadkar and Amir Elahi, replacing KM Rangnekar and Ranga Sohoni, the former going on to make an impressive debut. Australia missed Ernie Toshack due to injury, and this might have made a difference, since Toshack exploited the rain-affected pitch in the first match and could have done so this time around, had he played. However, this match is best remembered for the infamous "Mankading" incident, in which the Indian bowler, Vinoo Mankad ran out the Australian batsman Bill Brown for backing up too far, despite being warned in the first test.

However, Don Bradman, Bill Brown's captain, defended Mankad's sportsmanship in his autobiography, saying,

"For the life of me, I can't understand why [the press] questioned his sportsmanship. The laws of cricket make it quite clear that the non-striker must keep within his ground until the ball has been delivered. If not, why is the provision there which enables the bowler to run him out? By backing up too far or too early, the non-striker is very obviously gaining an unfair advantage."Wikipedia article on Vino Mankad

Match Report

India won the toss this time around, choosing to bat first, and immediately, Australia drew first blood, taking the first wicket of Sarwate while the score was 2, and then the second wicket-this time Mankad, fell at 16. Then after 22 more runs were added, rain interrupted the proceedings, bringing a close to the day's play. The second day started an hour late, but the Indian batsmen were again facing the brunt of a menacing Australian attack, and could not stitch vital partnerships, except for a noteworthy partnership of 70 between Gogumal Kishenchand, and the debutant Phadkar. Eventually, the Indians folded up for 188.

When it was the Australians' turn to bat, the opening pair of Brown and Morris put on a stand of 25, before Brown got Mankaded (Note that the scorecard lists all the victims of mankading as being run out). The third and fourth days' play was washed out, and on the fifth day, the saturated pitch did not help the batsmen much, as Phadkar and Vijay Hazare made most of the conditions, with Hazare scalping Bradman. Phadkar returned with thrifty figures of 3/14 and Hazare's analysis read 4/29 and Australia's innings wrapped up at 107. However, the Australian captain claimed that, "The Indians dismissed us too quickly for their own good. They, in turn, had to now face the unpleasant wicket and were immediately in trouble, losing seven wickets for 61 before stumps.""A brave beginning", by Sanjay Rajan, Times of India originally written on 26 September 2004, retrieved on 13 September 2011

At the end of the fifth day, the Australian bowlers, Bill Johnston and Ian Johnson showed that they could exploit the conditions just as well, reducing the Indians to seven down; but with a lead of 142, which was a high target on this wicket, the match seemed set for a thrilling finish. However, rain on the final day dispelled any chances of play.http://www.espncricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack/content/story/153879.html Second Test Match Australia v India 1947–48

3rd Test

Match Report