This will be the overall 16th edition of Border Cup-Gavaskarwas started from the 1996-97 series.
Since then, India has won nine of the 15 completed so far, while Australia won five. The series ended in a draw.
As the two teams prepare for the first Test that will take place in Nagpur, TimesofIndia.com takes a look at some of the biggest records and interesting stats for India vs Australia Test baseball competition:
1. India has a success rate of 29.41 in the Tests against Australia, winning 30 and losing 43 of the 102 contests (Draw 1 and Draw 28).
2. Sachin Tendulkar is one of only three hitters to have managed more than 3,000 runs against Australia in the Tests.
3. Tendulkar’s total score is 3630 (average 55.00) in 39 Tests only behind UK’s Jack Hobbs – 3636 (average 54.26) in 41 Tests. David Gower of England is the only other pitcher to have accumulated more than 3000 runs against Australia.
4. Tendulkar’s eleven hundred in the Test vs Australia is just behind Jack Hobbs. However, Tendulkar’s 20-hundreds in Australian competitions is a world record.
5. Harbhajan Singh, by eliminating Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist and Shane Warne from consecutive deliveries in the 2000-01 Kolkata Test, scored India’s first hat-trick in the Test.
6. India (171 & 657/7 decl.) beat Australia (445 & 212) by 171 runs in Kolkata in March 2001. The aforementioned case creates a third chance when a team loses the Test after making the next turn.
7. Australia remains the only team to have won the above questionable distinction on all three occasions. The first two were in Sydney in 1894 and in Leeds in 1981 – both times meeting England.
8. With their defeat in the Kolkata Test in March 2001, the Australian Test’s 16-match winning streak was broken.
9. Harbhajan Singh’s impressive total of 32 catches (ave 17.03) in the 2000-01 series is still India’s record against any opponent in the series of three Tests. He remains the only Indian pitcher to catch 30 shots in a series of three Tests.
10. VVS Laxman remains the only Indian hitter to manage more than 500 runs in a series of three Tests with Australia – 503 (ave 83.83), including 130 fifties, in 2000 -01.
11. Laxman’s greatest career stroke of 283 shots from 452 balls at Eden Gardens, Kolkata in March 2001 remains India’s record for the highest number of individual innings against Australia in the Tests. check.
(R file image Ashwin celebrates firing Steve Smith – Getty Images)
12. Anil Kumble is the only pitcher to complete a century of hitting the shuttlecock in the India and Australia related Tests.
13. Virat Kohli remains the only Indian player to reach four hundred points in the Test series against Australia – in Australia in 2014-15.
14. Kohli, with 692 runs (average 86.50) in the four-year 2014-15 series, holds the record for the highest total runs in the India vs Australia series.
15. Three Australians have done over 700 runs in the Tests vs India series – 769 (average 128.16) in Steven Smith’s 2014-15 Australia Quadruple Test series; 715 (mean 178.75) in Sir Donald Bradman’s 1947-48 Australian year test series and 706 (average 100.85) in Ricky Pontng’s 2003-04 Australia four test series .
16. Kohli is the second pitcher in the Chronicles of Trials to reach two hundredth (115 & 141 - in Adelaide in December 2014) on his captaincy debut – the first being Greg Chappell (Australia) – 123 & 109 failed to cross the West Indies at Gabba, Brisbane in 1975-76.
17. Kohli is the only captain to score two centuries in the Test match against Australia in Australia. He is the second Indian (and sixth overall) in Test Cricket to score a century in each half of a Test match in Australia – the first Indian hitter was Vijay Hazare – 116 & 145 in Adelaide in January 1948. Herbert Sutcliffe of England, Wally Hammond, Denis Compton and West Indian, Rohan Kanhai are four other players who have achieved the record against Australia in Australia.
18. Kohli scored 256 runs in the 2014 Adelaide Test – the most of any pitcher on his captain’s debut, surpassing Graham Dowling’s 244 (239 & 5) New Zealand preceded India at Christchurch in 1967-68.
19. Mahendra Singh Dhoni has a success rate of 61.53 as captain – winning eight, losing four and drawing one remaining of the 13 Tests played against Australia.
20. One of only two visiting players to have scored three hundred points in Adelaide, Kohli averaged 98.50 (394 in four innings) – his streak was 116 & 22 in January 2012 and 115 & 141 in December 2014). England’s Jack Hobbs registered three hundred in ten innings at this venue.
21. Kohli remains one of only two Indian captains to have managed a hundred in the fourth innings of the Test against Australia – 141 of 175 balls against Australia in December 2014. Mohammad Azharuddin was the first to do so. miracle – 106 of 162 balls against Australia in Adelaide in January 1992.
22. VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid shared a standing score of 376 for the fifth racket in the 2000-01 Kolkata Test – a record for any racquet in the India vs Australia match in the Test.
23. Just another century higher than Laxman/Dravid’s place above in the India-Australia Test – 386 for Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke’s fourth racket in the 2011-12 Adelaide Test.
24. Craig McDermott won 31 shots at a rate of 21.61 each in the 1991-92 Australian Five-Game Test series – the best by an Australian pitcher in the Post series. check with India.
Stats Courtesy: Rajesh Kumar
