The Indian cricket team began a tour of Australia in December 2007, playing the 4 match Test series for the Border–Gavaskar Trophy, followed by a single Twenty20 match on 1 February 2008. They also participated in the Commonwealth Bank tri-series against Australia and Sri Lanka from 3 February to 4 March.
Squads Test squads ODIs and Twenty20 squads India Squad – 20 January 2008 Australia T20 Squad – 30 January 2008 Anil Kumble (c) Ricky Ponting (c) M S Dhoni (c & wk) Ricky Ponting (c) M S Dhoni (wk) Adam Gilchrist (wk) Sachin Tendulkar Adam Gilchrist (wk) Gautam Gambhir Phil Jaques Yuvraj Singh Nathan Bracken Rahul Dravid Matthew Hayden Virender Sehwag Michael Clarke Sourav Ganguly Michael Hussey Dinesh Karthik Ben Hilfenhaus Harbhajan Singh Andrew Symonds Robin Uthappa Brad Hodge Wasim Jaffer Mitchell Johnson Gautam Gambhir James Hopes Irfan Pathan Stuart Clark Suresh Raina David Hussey Zaheer Khan Brett Lee Rohit Sharma Michael Hussey V. V. S. Laxman Shaun Tait Irfan Pathan Brett Lee Pankaj Singh Brad Hogg Praveen Kumar Ashley Noffke Ishant Sharma Michael Clarke Munaf Patel Andrew Symonds R. P. Singh Chris Rogers Ishant Sharma Adam Voges Virender Sehwag Sreesanth Sachin Tendulkar Harbhajan Singh Yuvraj Singh Piyush Chawla V. R. V. Singh Manoj Tiwary
Tour matches Before heading into the Test series, only one tour game was planned for India, against Victoria. After the Second Test, a second tour game was played, against ACT Invitational XI in Canberra. MS Dhoni led the Indians after regular captain Anil Kumble rested.
Test series
1st Test
Day One Australia won the toss and elected to bat and after surviving playing and missing and edging some balls through the cordon, built a strong platform with a century opening stand before Phil Jaques was stumped on 66. Ponting and Hussey got out shortly after falling for 4 and 2 respectively. Hayden brought up another Boxing Day a hundred after hitting a four. India then picked up the wicket of a struggling Clarke for 20. Kumble then picked up the wickets of Symonds and Gilchrist. Lee fell for a duck and Hogg was also out leaving Australia 9/323.
Day Two The second day Johnson and Clark batted well before Clark got out leaving Australia with a healthy score of 343. The Indian team were sent into bat and Dravid and Jaffer batted very slowly before losing early wickets. Tendulkar was the highlight of the innings scoring 62 before being bowled by Clark. The rest of the batting line up fell cheaply all out for 196. Australia then went in to bat late in the day with Jaques and Hayden not out at the end of the day to put Australia in a healthy position at stumps.
Day Three Australia resumed play firmly on top with all the batsmen getting starts except Ponting with Clarke top scoring with 73. At 7/351 Ponting declared sending India in to bat with a near impossible target of 499 to win. Jaffer and Dravid survived until the end of the day giving India a slight chance of winning.
Day Four India lost early wickets on day four and only Laxman and Ganguly scored above 20. The Australian bowlers ripped through the middle order with Johnson getting three along with the match-ending wicket of RP Singh. India were all out for 161 with Australia winning by 337 runs with a day to spare going 1–0 up in the best of 4 series. This also brought up 15 straight Test victories just one behind the record, held by Australia under the captaincy of Steve Waugh.
2nd Test
Day One India lost the toss again and Australia elected to bat, R.P Singh took Jaques for 0 his first ever Test duck in front of his home crowd. This left Australia 1 wicket down with no runs scored. Hayden followed soon after leaving Ponting and Hussey at the crease. The two survived until lunch Ponting scoring a half century. Harbhajan dismissed Ponting again causing a middle order collapse to leave Australia 6/137. On 30, Symonds was clearly caught behind off the bowling of Sharma but umpire Steve Bucknor controversially did not give it out. Symonds then went on to make 162 not out, with Hogg also scoring his first Test 50.
Day Two India dismissed the lower order in the morning with Australia all out for 463. Brett Lee bowled Jaffer before the partnership of Dravid and Laxman took over the crease. Laxman looked to play shots while Dravid was on the defence. Dravid made 55 while Laxman scored his second century at the SCG. Australian took late wickets leaving Tendulkar and Ganguly at the crease at stumps.
Day Three Tendulkar made another SCG century scoring 154 not out with the rest of the batsman contributing healthy scores. India held a 69 run lead, quite remarkable considering the position they were in after day one. Hayden and Jaques were unbeaten at stumps.
Day Four Jaques was out to Kumble shortly after regaining the lead. Ponting was caught off Harbhajan sparking major celebrations among the Indians. Hayden and Hussey took over the crease with Hayden scoring another hundred. Hayden had to get Ricky Ponting as a runner due to an injury, and was eventually dismissed of Kumble for 123. On the next ball Kumble claimed Clarke for a golden duck. On the hat-trick ball Kumble hit Symonds on the pads, sparking a big appeal from the Indian team, but it was not given. Symonds and Hussey remained unbeaten at stumps.
Day Five Australia started the final day at a slower rate then what was expected. Hussey went on to make his first century against India ending on 145 not out. Symonds also scored a half century before getting out at slip. With two overs available to bowl before lunch, Australia declared setting India a target of 333 to win. Many commentators opined that Ponting had declared too late in the innings. The situation of the game meant that India needed a run rate of well over 4, nearly impossible on the decaying SCG pitch. Australia needed 10 wickets to win in a minimum of 72 overs. Before lunch Jaffer fell to Lee, as he had in all four innings to date on the tour. The rest of the top and middle order fell without a large change on the scoreboard. The highest score was that of Ganguly who fell to a controversial decision on 51. Captain Anil Kumble led by example after the Laxman dismissal scoring 45 not out and spending over 2 hours at the crease. With just 2 overs remaining on day 5, India had 3 wickets in hand and were 122 runs behind. The game looked destined to be a draw. However, Michael Clarke took 3 wickets in 5 balls to give Australia victory with just 7 balls remaining.
The umpiring was heavily criticised after the match, with India believing they had a too-large share of bad decisions. After the match the Indian team sought to replace one of the umpires for the 3rd Test, going against a prior agreement stating that "Neither team has a right to object to an umpire's appointment."ESPNcricinfo – Bucknor will stand at Perth: ICC
3rd Test
Day One India won the toss for the first time in the series, and elected to bat first. Virender Sehwag got his first chance in the series and played a typically attacking innings, providing the team with a good start along with Wasim Jaffer. Both openers went within two runs of each other and Australia slowed the scoring for some time. Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid then came in and steadied the ship, taking the team to a relatively safe score with individual fifties before being dismissed, Dravid missing his century by seven runs. Australia took a few wickets at the end of the day to leave the day's honours even with India batting at 297/6 at the end of the day's play. Stuart Clark and Brett Lee were the standout performers for Australia.
Day Two The Indian batsmen took a few runs before Australia took four wickets for just two runs, closing the innings at 330. In reply, India's young pace attack kept Australia down with some fine swing bowling, pushing Australia down to 5/61. Andrew Symonds and Adam Gilchrist then put up an attacking 102 run partnership to engineer an Australian revival but were soon dismissed in quick succession. Indian captain Anil Kumble claimed Symonds as his 600th Test wicket. The pacers then cleaned up the tail, overcoming a few minor scares from tailenders Mitchell Johnson and Shaun Tait. Australia finished at 212, 118 runs behind, leaving the Indian batsmen to negotiate the last hour of the day's play. Stuart Clark took an early wicket, dismissing Wasim Jaffer, leaving India with a lead of 170 with nine wickets remaining at stumps with Sehwag and nightwatchman Irfan Pathan at the crease.
Day Three The morning session was finely balanced, with Australia reducing India to 125 for 5. Sehwag fell to Clark, while Brett Lee took the wickets of Rahul Dravid and Tendulkar, and Mitchell Johnson dismissed Sourav Ganguly. India's day was saved by the lower order, led by the 79 of VVS Laxman. Pathan finished on 46 and Mahendra Singh Dhoni a gritty 38, but the biggest irritant to Australia proved to be RP Singh, who scored a career-high 30 as part of a 51-run ninth-wicket partnership with Laxman that took the India lead over 400 runs. India were finally dismissed for 294 when Laxman edged a Lee delivery to Gilchrist. Australia were set a daunting target of 413 to win—greater than all but one successful run chase in Test history to date. Pathan took the wickets of Chris Rogers and Phil Jaques before stumps, leaving Australia on 65/2.
Day Four Ricky Ponting and Mike Hussey stayed at the crease for a major part of the morning session. Ishant Sharma troubled Ponting throughout this period, with the Australian captain unable to take control. After a seven-over spell, Anil Kumble was about to replace Sharma with RP Singh, when Virender Sehwag asked him to retain Sharma. The ploy worked and Ponting was dismissed off the first ball of that over. This triggered the fall of the Australian resistance, as they lost four wickets in the session after lunch (including the contentious dismissals of Hussey and Andrew Symonds). Sehwag was brought in to bowl and responded with the prize scalps of Adam Gilchrist and Brett Lee. Towards the end, Michael Clarke (61) kept up the resistance in partnerships of 50 and 24 with Gilchrist and Mitchell Johnson. Johnson himself made his first Test fifty and was involved in a whirlwind partnership of 74 with Stuart Clark, but once last man Shaun Tait came in at the fall of Clark, it was only a matter of time before India took the match; RP Singh did the honours with a yorker that went hit Tait's foot outside the leg stump and rolled onto his stumps, half an hour before the close of the day's play.
The game was widely praised for the high standard of cricket on offer throughout. The Indians were particularly praised for coming back from two games down in the series to deny Australia a record seventeenth consecutive Test victory at a venue whose pitch has, over the years, proved to be the downfall of almost every visiting team. Indian captain Anil Kumble considered this win as his best win ever.
The defeat also end Australia's unbeaten streak in Tests at the WACA for 11 years after their 1997 loss to the West Indies. As a result, India became first and only Asian team to win a test match at the WACA.
4th Test
Day One India won the toss and elected to bat first. While India brought in Harbhajan Singh in place of Wasim Jaffer, Australia brought back Matthew Hayden and Brad Hogg replacing Chris Rogers and Shaun Tait.