The Indian national cricket team toured Pakistan during the 2003–04 cricket season to play five One Day International matches and three Test matches against the Pakistan cricket team. The series was called the Samsung Cup for sponsorship reasons. India won the ODI series 3-2 and the Test series 2–1.
Background It was announced in early January 2004 that India would tour Pakistan in March that year. After India's team management and players expressed security concerns in Pakistan, the Board of Control for Cricket in India sent a three-member team in February to assess the situation and reported that they were "satisfied with the (security) measures being planned by Pakistan". Happy with their report, the Indian government gave a go-ahead to the tour after a few days.
India entered the Test series never having won a Test on Pakistani soil.
Squads +ODIsTests Pakistan India 'Indian team to be picked on March 1''Bhandari to replace injured Nehra' Pakistan India 'Agarkar and Kumble in Test squad' Inzamam-ul-Haq (c) Shahid Afridi Yasir Hameed Mohammad Yousuf Younis Khan Abdul Razzaq Shoaib Malik Shoaib Akhtar Moin Khan (wk) Mohammad Sami Shoaib Akhtar Shabbir Ahmed Saqlain Mushtaq Naved-ul-Hasan Taufeeq Umar Imran Farhat Sourav Ganguly (c) Rahul Dravid (vc, wk) Virender Sehwag Sachin Tendulkar VVS Laxman Zaheer Khan Yuvraj Singh Mohammad Kaif Ashish Nehra Lakshmipathy Balaji Parthiv Patel (wk) Murali Kartik Irfan Pathan Ramesh Powar Hemang Badani Amit Bhandari Inzamam-ul-Haq (c) Shabbir Ahmed Shoaib Akhtar Imran Farhat Umar Gul Yasir Hameed Asim Kamal Moin Khan (wk) Danish Kaneria Shoaib Malik Saqlain Mushtaq Abdul Razzaq Mohammad Sami Misbah-ul-Haq Taufeeq Umar Mohammad Yousuf Sourav Ganguly (c) Rahul Dravid (vc, wk) Aakash Chopra Virender Sehwag Sachin Tendulkar VVS Laxman Yuvraj Singh Parthiv Patel (wk) Anil Kumble Ajit Agarkar Zaheer Khan Irfan Pathan Ashish Nehra Lakshmipathy Balaji Murali Kartik Ramesh Powar India's 15-man squad for the Test series was announced on 22 March 2004. Yuvraj Singh, rewarded for his consistent performances in the domestic circuit, and spinner Anil Kumble and medium-pacer Ajit Agarkar, who recovered from injuries, were included. The squad comprised seven batsmen, four medium-pacer and three spinners. The Pakistan Test squad was announced three days later. Batsmen Shahid Afridi and Younis Khan were dropped, and leg-spinner Danish Kaneria was included.
India's captain Sourav Ganguly was ruled out of the side due to an injured back before the First Test. Rahul Dravid, who had previously led India only once, was named the stand-in captain. Ganguly returned for the Third Test as player and captain. Also, Ashish Nehra was brought in the side in Ajit Agarkar's place for that Test.
Tour match Pakistan A v Indians
ODI series
1st ODI
2nd ODI
3rd ODI
4th ODI
5th ODI
Test series
1st Test
2nd Test
3rd Test
In popular culture
This series is the subject of the Netflix documentary The Greatest Rivalry: India vs Pakistan.
References
External links Tour home at Cricinfo Tour home at The Tribune