West Indian cricket team in India in 1958–59

The West Indies cricket team toured India from November 1958 to February 1959 and played a five-match Test series against the India national cricket team. The West Indies won the series 3–0. The West Indies were captained by Gerry Alexander while India used four different captains in the series, Ghulam Ahmed leading in two Tests.^[1] They also played 12 other first-class fixtures, winning six of them and the rest ending in draws. They finished the tour undefeated.^[2]

The West Indies Cricket Board announced a 16-man squad for the India tour on 1 April 1958 led by Frank Worrell.^[3] However, Worrell withdrew from the tour in May. John Holt and Wes Hall were added to the squad in August.^[4]

The squad included:

• Gerry Alexander (c)
• Eric Atkinson
• Basil Butcher
• Robin Bynoe
• Lance Gibbs
• Roy Gilchrist
• Wes Hall
• Jackie Hendriks (wk)
• John Holt
• Conrad Hunte
• Rohan Kanhai
• Sonny Ramadhin
• Willie Rodriguez
• Collie Smith
• Garfield Sobers
• Joe Solomon
• Jaswick Taylor

Opting to bat first after having won the toss, Hyderabad made 232, with Habib Ahmed top-scoring with a half-century. The West Indians began strongly and were at 242/3 at one stage, before the new ball was taken by the hosts. M. Jairam made the best of it, and claimed wickets which included Basil Butcher and Rohan Kanhai. His five-over spell with the new ball ended with figures 4/17. The visitors were all out for 315, having secured a 83-run lead over Hyderabad. The hosts began their second innings poorly, with both openers being dismissed cheaply after struggling against the bowling of Wes Hall and Eric Atkinson, before closing day 2 at 19/2.^[6] The first session saw them collapse offering barely any resistance to the West Indian bowling, barring M. L. Jaisimha, Edulji Aibara and Ahmed. They were dismissed for 137. The West Indians reached the target of 55 runs in 32 minutes without losing a wicket.^[7]

The last match of the tour began with the visitors collapsing for a total of 76 runs and bowling out their opposition for 59 all inside four hours of play on day 1. Before tea, a combined total of 21 wickets had fallen. At close of play, the West Indians were at 106/1, having added 80 runs for the second wicket through Rohan Kanhai and Collie Smith. Kanhai became the second West Indian, after Garfield Sobers to reach 1,000 runs for the tour.^[9] Dew on the pitch the following morning meant the West Indians struggled against the bowling of Narain Swamy, Swaranjit Singh and Dattu Phadkar. However, they reached 228 before being bowled out; the North Zone became the first team to claim all 20 wickets of the West Indians during the tour. North Zone's fourth innings chase of 246 closed on day 2 at 77/3.^[10] They were dismissed for 172 on the final day. The only notable partnership came from captain Swaranjit Singh (60) and Yogendra Chowdhury (36), who put on 84 runs for the fourth wicket. The final five wickets added a mere 30 runs before collapsing in under an hour. The match ended with more than three hours to spare.^[2]

• Tour home at ESPNcricinfo
• Tour home at ESPNcricinfo archive
• West Indies in India and Pakistan 1958/59 at CricketArchive (subscription required)