India vs New Zealand: Will early birds New Zealand get the worm?

The Hyderabad Test against New Zealand begins on August 23. This is, by far, the earliest any Test match has begun in an Indian season. The previous earliest start was on September 11, 1979 when Australia played a Test at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Madras (now Chennai).

Incidentally, the last time a first-class game began in the month of August in India was in 1992, when the season began with the Duleep Trophy. However, the earliest start ever to an Indian season would have to be on August 2, 1969 with the start of the Ranji Trophy of 1969-70. Incidentally, during that month in August 1969, a record seven first-class matches were played in India. The first table lists all first-class matches played in India in the month of August since the inception of first-class games in India on Aug 26, 1892.

In all, eight Test matches have been played in India in the month of September. India's only win in this month at home came against New Zealand in 1969. A look at these eight September Tests reveals some interesting numbers as indicated in the table below.

Test matches played in August/September in India

Test centuries in September in India
(Total centuries 15. For India - 7, against India - 8 )

Note:

Leading run scorers in September in India

 

Most wickets in a match in September in India

Leading wicket-takers in September in India

New Zealand's tour to the subcontinent in October 1955 was a twin tour of Pakistan and India. It was their first visit to this part of the world. At that point of time, the Kiwis had not even officially toured their neighbouring Australia, which, incidentally, came only in 1973/74, nearly 19 years later. The Kiwis, then led by their medium pacer Harry Cave, began the first leg of their tour in Pakistan and then came to India. The tour did not go as expected for them: the heat and the food took its toll and several of its players came down with stomach ailments and other illnesses. The team lost 0-2 to Pakistan in three Tests and by an identical margin to India in the five-match Test series. Since then, the Kiwis have made nine other tours, including the current one. Overall in nine series, the home side has won seven and drawn two. The table below has the series details in India.

New Zealand in India

Series Summary

Ever since their first visit to the subcontinent in 1955-56, New Zealand haven't had a good time. Their win percentage of 14.93 is the lowest among all visiting teams, with the exception of Zimbabwe. If their performance in Bangladesh is excluded then the win percentage comes down further to 11.11. The first table below provides the Test performances of visiting teams to the subcontinent and the second one of New Zealand's performance in the subcontinent against each team.

Test performance of visiting teams to subcontinent

New Zealand in the subcontinent in Tests

The city of Hyderabad will be hosting its fifth Test match since its first in November 1955. Interestingly, all the five Test matches hosted by the city have been against the Kiwis, though in two different grounds. The details are below.

Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium, Fateh Maidan, Hyderabad
v New Zealand on November 19-24, 1955 - Match Drawn
v New Zealand on October 15-20, 1969 - Match Drawn
v New Zealand on December 2-6, 1988 - India won by ten wickets

Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium, Uppal, Hyderabad
v New Zealand on November 12-16, 2010 - Match Drawn
v New Zealand on August 23-27, 2012 -

The Hyderabad Test match will be India's 23^rd during the month of August. The first came at the Oval in 1936 (15-18 August). India has so far played Tests in August only in England and Sri Lanka as can be seen from the table below. As mentioned earlier, the Hyderabad Test will be the first in India in August.

There have been only two occasions when an Indian first-class season began with a Test match. The first was against Australia in Madras in October 1956, when the Aussies had stopped over for a short series of three Test matches after their tour of England. Then, 26 years later, Sri Lanka played a one-off Test match in Madras in September 1982, during their first official tour of India. The Hyderabad Test match against the Kiwis will be the third such occasion when the season opener was a Test match.