AUS vs IND, 2020-21: Border-Gavaskar Trophy – Statistical Preview

India’s tour of Australia moves into the final segment, the 4-match Test series where the two teams will fight for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and also 120 points in the World Test Championship. Australia, the topper of the WTC table and the No.1 ranked Test side, will be looking to retain their positions in respective lists with a series win. India, on the other hand, might be happy even with a drawn series in the absence of their skipper Virat Kohli for the final three Test matches due to paternity leave.

Here are all the key stats and numbers that matter ahead of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2020-21:

0 – Australia has not lost any of their home Test match featuring Steve Smith and Pat Cummins. The duo together played ten home Tests where Australia won nine and another game ended in a draw. In fact, Australia has not lost any of their last 14 Test matches at home which includes 13 wins.

2 – Ajinkya Rahane has played two Test matches as captain thus far – against Australia in the 2017 Dharamsala Test and against Afghanistan in the 2018 Bangalore Test. India clinched victories on both occasions in the absence of their regular captain Virat Kohli. Rahane will take over captaincy duties for the final three Test matches.

3/3 – David Warner has scored a century in all the three innings he batted against India in Test cricket in the absence of Ravichandran Ashwin. However, with Ashwin in the playing XI, Warner managed to score only one century and three fifties across 27 innings in 14 Test matches. Warner got out to Ashwin on nine occasions in this format.

7/8 – Steve Smith has smashed a century in seven of his last eight Test matches against India. Smith, in fact, scored centuries in all the four Tests he played at home against India. He has got an average of 84.05 in the longer format against India where he scored 1429 runs across 10 Tests.

9/10 – Marnus Labuschagne has recorded at least one fifty-plus score in nine of his last ten Test matches. During the 2019-20 home season, Labuschagne had as many as seven fifty-plus scores in eight innings including four centuries. He has 11 fifty-plus scores across 15 Test innings ever since he replaced Steve Smith as concussion substitute in the last year’s Lord’s Test match.

22.23 – KL Rahul has got a batting average of 22.23 in Test cricket since the start of 2018 which is the lowest for any Indian with 500+ Test runs in this period. As many as nine players scored 500+ Test runs since the start of 2018 but none other than Rahul average less than 35. Rahul scored 578 runs in 15 Tests he played with help of a century and a fifty.

27-3 – India’s win-loss record in Test cricket while batting first since the start of 2015. India batted first in as many as 34 Tests in this period and lost only three including twice in New Zealand at the start of 2020. India has not lost any of the 25 Test matches where they elected to bat first since the start of 2015.

29.57 – Cheteshwar Pujara is averaging only 29.57 in Test cricket since the 2018-19 Border-Gavaskar Trophy where he scored only 414 runs across nine Tests with five fifties. Pujara managed to score only two centuries across 20 first-class matches he played since the previous Australian tour where he scored 1351 runs at 45.03 average.

1997 – The last calendar year where India did not win a Test match was 1997 where ten of the 12 matches they played ended in a draw while other two resulted in defeats. India lost both the Tests they played in 2020 and are left to play two games (in Adelaide and Melbourne) until the end of the year.