Flashback: India’s first Test in Australia

Before touring Australia in 1947 for the first time, the Indian team had toured overseas only thrice – against England in 1932 and 1946 as they lost the series every time they were in England. Lindsay Hassett had toured India with an Australian Services team in 1946 and India managed to beat them 1-0. He reported back to Australia and termed India worthy to tour the country.

The Indian team was about to face a stiff challenge as they braced to face the mighty Australians led by legendary, Sir Don Bradman. From India, Vijay Merchant was named as the captain of the side and Mushtaq Ali acted as the vice-captain. The other notable players were swashbuckling batter Rusi Modi and Fazal Mahmood who was about to debut for India.

But at the last moment, Merchant and Modi opted out of the tour citing medical reasons and Ali could not feature as his brother breathed his last. Lala Amarnath was announced as the captain of the side and Vijay Hazare acted as the vice-captain.

The first Test was held at the Brisbane Cricket Ground from November 28 to December 4, 1947. Australia won the toss and elected to bat first. On the back of a brilliant 185 off 336 from Bradman, the hosts posted a huge 382/8 before declaring. The left-arm pacer Ernie Toshack was all over India’s batters as he picked up five wickets and India was bundled for 58 runs in the first innings.

After India was asked to follow on, Ernie Toshack came back to haunt the visitors again. He picked six-fer this time around and India wrapped their innings scoring just 98 runs as Australia won the game by 226 runs. For India Amarnath was the highest scorer with 22 runs in the first innings and Chandu Sarwate was the highest-scorer with 26 runs.