The

Pakistan national cricket team The Pakistan men's national cricket team represents Pakistan in international cricket. It is controlled by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), the governing body for cricket in Pakistan, which is a Full Member of the International Cricket Counc ...

toured

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

in the winter of 1960–61. They played five

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film) ...

matches against the

India national cricket team The India men's national cricket team, also known as Men in Blue, represents India in international cricket. It is governed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India and is a full member nation of the International Cricket Council with ...

, and also played against several local Indian squads.

Background

Writing for ''

The Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932 by P. Varadarajulu Naidu. It is headquartered in Noida, owned by the ''Indian Express Group''. It was later taken over by Ramnath Goenka. In 1999, eight y ...

'' cricketer Abdul Hafeez Kardar who played for both India and Pakistan maintained that if Pakistan "does well in the first two test matches", they would go on to win the series. He felt that the visiting side had the "strongest batting power house ever to be sent out" by Pakistan and that Hanif Mohammad, "the most matured opener of the game", would the main "hurdle" for India.

Squads

The Indian squad for the series was announced on 30 November 1960.

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; Literal translation, lit. 'Land of Kings') is a States and union territories of India, state in northwestern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the List of states and union territories of ...

's all-rounder Rusi Surti was the only new inclusion in the squad. Vijay Manjrekar and Subhash Gupte made their comeback to the squad after a year. It was reported that the Pakistan squad would be announced only an hour before commencement of the First Test. To their squad announced before the First test, Ijaz Butt, Shujauddin Butt, Mohammad Munaf and Intikhab Alam were added for the first-class game against Central Zone.

Test series

1st Test

Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat first on what was described as a pitch without the "usual grass" on it while staying "firm" and with "little dew".

2nd Test

The Indian team selectors made changes to the squad following the First Test;

wicket-keeper In cricket, the wicket-keeper is the Cricket player, player on the fielding (cricket), fielding side who stands behind the wicket, ready to stop Delivery (cricket), deliveries that pass the batsman, and take a Caught, catch, Stumped, stump the ...

Naren Tamhane, V. M. Muddiah, Salim Durani were included in place of

Pankaj Roy Pankaj Roy (; 31 May 1928 – 4 February 2001) was an Indian cricketer who played in 43 test matches, including once as captain. He was a right-handed opening batsman, perhaps best known for establishing the world record opening partnership in ...

, Nana Joshi and Ajit Wadekar. The Pakistani side included Alimuddin.

3rd Test

Leading up to the Third Test, pacer Surendranath was included in the Indian squad while

was dropped. Pakistan made one change in the team that played the Second Test; Intikhab Alam replaced Alimuddin. A "grassy wicket" aiding bowlers, both seamers and spinners, was expected before the game.

4th Test

The Indian selectors included Datta Gaekwad and Baloo Gupte in place of Abbas Ali Baig, Bapu Nadkarni and Subhash Gupte after the Third Test. Further, following the first-class game between Pakistan and Indian Board President's XI, wicket-keeper Budhi Kunderan and Vijay Mehra were added to the squad. Showers were predicted on the day one of the Test following intermittent rains on the day preceding the game.

5th Test

In the Indian side that played the Fourth Test and the squad, Datta Gaekwad, Surendranath, Baloo Gupte and Naren Tamhane were replaced with Indrajitsinhji, Prakash Poddar, Bapu Nadkarni and Vaman Kumar for the Fifth.

Broadcast

The series was aired on

All India Radio All India Radio (AIR), also known as Akashvani (), is India's state-owned public broadcasting, public radio broadcaster. Founded in 1936, it operates under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (India), Ministry of Information and Broa ...

for Indian listeners. For the Second Test the

Maharajkumar of Vizianagram Lt. Col. Pusapati Vijaya Ananda Gajapathi Raju (28 December 1905 – 2 December 1965), better known as the Maharajkumar of Vizianagram or ''Vizzy'', was an Indian cricketer, cricket administrator and politician. Childhood Vizzy was th ...

, Devraj Puri and V. K. Chakrapani served as commentators, while for the Fourth Test, the Maharaja was accompanied by Pearson Surita and P. Ananda Rau, and Pakistan's

Omar Kureishi Omar Kureishi (1928 – 14 March 2005) was a Pakistani writer. He had also worked in the advertising, aviation and journalism industry, writing for ''Dawn'', ''The Pakistan Times'', ''Morning News'' and ''The Guardian'', London. He is best known ...

as the guest commentator.

References

External links

Tour homepage
at

ESPN Cricinfo ESPNcricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a ...

archives * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pakistani cricket team in India in 1960-61 1960 in Indian cricket 1960 in Pakistani cricket 1961 in Indian cricket 1961 in Pakistani cricket Indian cricket seasons from 1945–46 to 1969–70 International cricket competitions from 1960–61 to 1970 1960-61