As India Vs Australia Test series is about to get underway, let’s have a background of the Test matches that India has played in Australia in the past. India’s record in Test match cricket on the Australian soil hasn’t been great over the years as they have been able to win just one Test series down under, but what’s important is that the only Test series that they have won so far in Australia was the last Test series between these two teams. So, India is definitely going into this Test series with a psychological advantage.
India’s overall record in Australia might not be of the highest standard, but there have been quite a few players who have done brilliantly in Australia on an individual front. Here are the 5 players who have scored most runs for India in India Vs Australia Test matches on Australian soil.
1. Sachin Tendulkar
Sachin Tendulkar has got most Test runs to his name on the Australian soil as far as the Indian batsmen are concerned, but he also played more Test matches in Australia than any other Indian batsman. In the 20 Test matches that Tendulkar played in Australia, he scored 1809 runs at an average of 53.20 with 6 hundreds and 7 half-centuries. His knock of 241 in Sydney in 2004, which is also his highest score in Australia, goes down in the history books as one of the greatest Test innings of all time.
2. Virat Kohli
Virat Kohli is actually averaging more than Tendulkar in Test cricket in Australia, but he is still a fair bit away from Tendulkar’s total tally of runs. Kohli has, however, played only 12 Test matches in Australia as compared to Tendulkar’s 20.
Kohli has, so far, scored 1274 runs in Australia at an average of 55.39 and he has also got past the three figure mark 6 times.
3. VVS Laxman
Australia was one of the teams VVS Laxman was always very dominant against, whether he was playing home or away. He just took a liking to the Australian attack and scored heaps of runs against them.
Laxman averaged 44.14 in Australia in a total of 15 Test matches that he played there. The stylish right-hander scored 1236 runs with 4 hundreds and as many half-centuries as well.
4. Rahul Dravid
Rahul Dravid scored just one hundred in Australia in the 15 Test matches that he played there, but despite the fact that he didn’t score a lot of hundreds, he was still very consistent with the bat on almost all the tours of Australia that he went on.
Dravid scored 1143 Test runs in Australia averaging 43.96 with the bat. Apart from one hundred that he scored, which was a double hundred, Dravid scored 6 Test half-centuries on the Australian soil.
5. Virender Sehwag
Sehwag played only 10 Test matches in Australia, which was a significantly lower number of games as compared to some of the other greats, but the former Indian opener is still at no. 5 on the list of the highest run scorers among the Indian batsmen in Test match cricket in Australia.
Sehwag scored a couple of hundreds and 4 fifties in 10 Test matches in Australia and ended with a runs’ tally of 948 and a batting average of 47.40.
Sehwag was not the most compact batsman in the world technically, but the reason why the Australian pitches suited him was because the ball didn’t move much there and the bounce was good, so the ball would always come nicely onto the bat.
