Mohandas Menon & Roshan Paul
The Australians visited India for the first time in October and November of 1956 to play 3 Test matches. They were on their way back from a closely fought 1-2 loss to England and had a very strong team with the likes of Neil Harvey, Richie Benaud, Peter Burge, Ray Lindwall and skipper Ian Johnson. They would have been even stronger if Keith Miller and Alan Davidson, both of whom played in England, had made the trip to India.
India's Subash Gupte and Australia's Richie Benaud were the two best leg-spinners in the world at that time and everyone looked forward to a battle for supremacy between the two of them, according to India's premier opening batsman in that series, Pankaj Roy.
Roy also confessed that the team was nervous at the prospect of facing the Aussies. "We were especially worried about their fast bowlers. In those days, bowlers easily bowled above 95 mph and we had no protection like today and also there were no restrictions on bouncers or beamers."
The first Test was at Madras and India elected to bat on a turning track. However, Richie Benaud took 7 wickets to bowl India out for 161. Around lunch on the third day, the Aussies were 200-8 and the match hung in the balance. However skipper Ian Johnson and pace bowler Pat Crawford added 87 for the ninth wicket to extend Australia's lead to 158. On the fourth day, Ray Lindwall came back from a stomach ailment to run through the Indian team. He took 7/43 as India went down by an innings and 5 runs.
India
1st Innings 161
VL Manjrekar 41, PR Umrigar 31, MH Mankad 27
R Benaud 7/72, WPA Crawford 3/32
Australia
1st Innings 319
IW Johnson 73, ID Craig 40, RN Harvey 37
MH Mankad 4/90, SP Gupte 3/89, Ghulam Ahmed 2/67
India
2nd Innings 153
GS Ramchand 28, PR Umrigar 25, AG Kripal Singh 20*
RR Lindwall 7/43, IW Johnson 1/15
Result: Australia won by an innings and 5 runs
In the second Test at Bombay, the Indians put up a better fight. However, the Australians were still far and away the superior team. A century from G. S. Ramchand led India to 251 in the first innings. The Aussie replied with 523, an innings remarkable for the way Neil Harvey destroyed the famed Subash Gupte. India batted out the rest of the time for an honourable draw, thanks to battling innings' by Pankaj Roy and captain Polly Umrigar.
Australia
1st Innings 523 for 7 dec
JW Burke 161, RN Harvey 140, PJP Burge 83
SP Gupte 3/115, JM Patel 2/111, GS Ramchand 1/78
India 
1st Innings 251
GS Ramchand 109, VL Manjrekar 55, HR Adhikari 33
KD Mackay 3/27, WPA Crawford 3/28, R Benaud 2/54
India
2nd Innings 250 for 5
Pankaj Roy 79, PR Umrigar 78, VL Manjrekar 30
R Benaud 2/98, JW Rutherford 1/11, JW Wilson1/25
Result: Match drawn
The third Test at Calcutta was a big disappointment as the Indians let slip a golden opportunity to level the series. Neither team crossed 200 runs in any innings but India batted worse to fold for 136 in each innings; and this on a wicket that helped the spinners. Although off-spinner Ghulam Ahmed took 7 Australian wickets in the first innings and 3 in the second, he was overshadowed by Richie Benaud, who took 11 wickets in the match and bowled his team to a 2-0 series victory.
Australia
1st Innings 177
PJP Burge 58, ID Craig 36, R Benaud 24
Ghulam Ahmed 7/49, MH Mankad 2/56, SP Gupte 1/35
India
1st Innings 136
VL Manjrekar 33, NJ Contractor 22, P Bhandari 17
R Benaud 6/52, RR Lindwall 3/32, IW Johnson 1/27
Australia
2nd Innings 189 for 9 dec
RN Harvey 69, RR Lindwall 28, KD Mackay 27
MH Mankad 4/49, Ghulam Ahmed 3/81, GS Ramchand 1/6
India
2nd Innings 136
PR Umrigar 28, Pank Roy 24, MH Mankad 24
R Benaud 5/53, JW Burke 4/37, IW Johnson 1/23
Result: Australia won by 94 runs
Thus, the Australians easily won the series and Richie Benaud won the battle of the leg-spinners with 23 wickets at 16.86 to Gupte's 8 at 32.9. However, Gupte did have 2 less innings' to bowl than Benaud, thanks to the might of the Australian batting, led by the left-handed Neil Harvey.
In hindsight, Australia was by far the better team in terms of bowling arsenal; and that made the difference. Roy felt that "historically, teams with great fast bowlers have dictated terms to others" and in that series, Australia had far superior fast bowlers.
Photographs: Allsport