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How will Australia fare in the Border-Gavaskar Test series starting in Mohali, India, on Friday? Home advantage plays a big role. Look at these statistics: Australia has won 22 and lost only 5 of the 36 Tests played against India in Australia. But India leads 13-12 in India.
Australia will have to win both the Tests in India to lead 14-13 on Indian soil.
Both as a batsman and captain, Ricky Ponting’s record in India is disappointing. Overall, he averages 54.66 with the bat in 146 Tests against all countries. But he has a poor average of 20.85 in 12 Tests in India.
He had a miserable tour of India in 2000-01, struggling to 17 runs (0; 6 and 0; 0 and 11) at McGrath-like batting average of 3.40 in three Tests. Due to an injury in 2004-05, he played only one Test and made an unimpressive 23 runs in two innings. He started the 2008-09 series well with a century in the Bangalore Test but ended up averaging only 38.00 in the 4-Test series.
Not that the Indian bowlers have a wood on him. In Australia he has an imposing batting average of 79.35 in 11 Tests against India.
As a captain, his record in India is equally disappointing. He has still to win a Test in India, losing three with two drawn out of five Tests captained. The two Tests Australia won in the 2004-05 series were under Adam Gilchrist.
However, in Australia, Ponting led Australia to a 2-1 victory in the 2007-08 ‘bollyline’ series.
So Ponting has a lot to prove in India. And he has not started well with only 42 and 9 runs in the tour opener against a mediocre Indian Board President’s XI attack.
But he is too good a cricketer to get past failures get to him. Here are some milestones awaiting him:
Overall, Ponting holds a record for winning most Test matches in the game’s history. He has won 47 out of 71 Tests captained against all countries (losing 12 and drawing 12) with a success rate of 66 percent.
This is a record for the number of Tests won by a skipper in Test annals. Another Australian Steve Waugh is second with 41 wins (with a better win percent of 72%) out of 57 Tests skippered. During the Ashes, Ponting has a chance to become the first captain to win 50 Tests.
Ponting, with 6205 runs at an average of 53.49 in 71 Tests, is the third highest run-getter as captain. He has a chance to overtake Australia’s Allan Border (6623 at 50.94 in 93 Tests) and South Africa’s Graeme Smith (6564 at 50.10 in 78 Tests) in months to come.
Ponting and Graeme Smith are the only ones to record 19 centuries each while leading their countries. When Ponting hits a hundred, he will become the only skipper to score 20 centuries.
One can’t write on Ponting without mentioning his acrobatic fielding. So far he has pouched 172 catches in 146 Tests. He needs 10 catches to overtake Mark Waugh’s Australian record of 181 catches in 128 Tests. India’s Rahul Dravid leads with 196 catches in 142 Tests.
Before he retires, Ponting is likely to pass the 200 catch barrier.
But first thing first. He has to win the Test series in India to prove doubters like me wrong.
Unless he does that, he has a question mark hanging on his leadership, especially after losing Ashes in England in 2005 and in 2009.