Batting prowess overseas in seaming, swinging conditions predicates success

Team India appears to have turned the corner with Manish Pandey’s scintillating ton ending the losing spree of games in the ODI series. The spin bowlers and newcomers Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bhumra joined the party in the first T20. The scoreline now reads 4-2 if the matches were an eight game series.

It has been my pet theory that if Indian batsmen do well in South Africa, Australia, England and New Zealand, they can be counted on as long-term prospects and should be persisted with more than any other batters who may pile up runs by the dozen on the subcontinent but who come up a cropper against the antipodeans and the English.

Towards this end, I decided to gather some stats about how Indian batters have fared against the above four teams in their home conditions.

The following is a list of Indian batters who average above 30 against South Africa, New Zealand, England and Australia overseas.

The list is illustrious reading like a who’s who of Indian cricket in Tests with Mahendra Singh Dhoni bringing up the rear with an average of 30.58 with a highest score of 92 in 32 Tests and 55 innings.

Virender Sehwag, surprisingly, ranks just above him with an average of 33.11 from 29 matches and 54 innings. His highest score is 195 with four centuries to his name.

Let’s look at the list of players who have averaged over 30 in ODIs.

Virat Kohli tops this list with an average of 41.35 from 34 innings with four tons and a highest score of 123. Rohit Sharma follows with 40.71 from 32 innings and three hundreds.

Surprising entries in this list include Sunny Gavaskar, Ravindra Jadeja and Suresh Raina.

For an orthodox player, Gavaskar proved to be versatile and averages 38.94 from 21 innings with a highest score of 92 not out. Gavaskar scored just one hundred in the ODI format in 1987 in his penultimate game against New Zealand.

Jadeja makes this list—placed somewhere in the middle—with 35.84 from 21 innings with a highest score of 87. Dhoni’s faith in him might not be misplaced after all.

Dhoni’s other blue-eyed boy Raina averages 31.03 from 30 innings with a highest score of 100. He brings up the rear followed by Virender Sehwag with 30.2 from 35 innings. Evidently Sehwag was not the impact player against these four sides in their backyard. These are stats though and stats never tell the whole story.

The above two tables are for players who have played a minimum of 20 Tests or 20 ODIs.

There are no equivalent statistics for T20s. There are no players who average above 30 and have played 20 T20 games.

Fans wave the Indian flag during a match against Australia (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The following table lists batters who have averaged over 30 since Jan 1, 2005 against the four sides.

Amit Mishra is the anomaly averaging 84 from one innings.

Except for Dinesh Karthik who did well overseas especially in England and Gambhir who’s still struggling for form,  the rest are rightly pencilled in by the selectors when it comes to choosing a Test side.

In ODIs, Pandey’s recent exploits see him top the list. Rayudu, Uthappa and Parthiv Patel offer the selectors an abundance of riches when it comes to choosing a replacement for MS Dhoni. Yusuf Pathan makes the list as well with a stupendous average of 46.75 from six innings.

The list of T20 players throw no surprises either.

These statistics , of course, don’t provide any sign of deserving talent among batters who have not appeared for India against these four sides in India colours.

India ‘A’ sides have toured overseas and Indian batters have prospered in hostile conditions. Those stats could have provided a larger picture of prospective talent.

But for me, it’s a no-brainer that if Indian batters have scored runs heavily overseas in these four nations, they are likely to do even better elsewhere and especially in home conditions.

Let no one tell you otherwise, least of all, MS Dhoni.

(All statistics courtesy Cricinfo’s StatsGuru).