It was a nightmare series for top-order batters, with only two finishing with 40-plus averages
Sampath Bandarupalli06-Jan-2025
A rare come-from-behind win for Australia
Australia’s quest for the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy began with a massive defeat in Perth. However, they quickly recovered, winning three of the next four Tests. It’s rare for Australia to come back after losing the first Test of a series. Their 3-1 series victory against India was only the eighth time Australia had managed to win a Test series after losing the opening match, and only their second such win since 1970.
This was the 31st time since 1970 that Australia had lost the first match of a Test series. Of those times, only this series and the 1997 Ashes in England have ended with Australia as the series winner. Australia have lost 24 of the other 29 series, and drawn five. At home, Australia have lost the first Test nine times since 1970, and have gone on to lose the series seven times.
A tough series for the batters
The Border-Gavaskar Trophy was the most challenging Test series for batters in Australia in recent times. The batting average of 24.32 is the lowest of 38 Test series of three or more matches in Australia since the Australia-Pakistan series in November-December 1995.In that three-match series between Australia and Pakistan, the batting average was 23.74. That series and this Australia-India one rank as the two with the lowest batting averages in Test series in Australia over the last 50 series of three or more matches, dating back to December 1985.During this series between Australia and India, there were eight totals under 200, six of them achieved by India. Only two Test series in Australia have had more sub-200 totals: 13 in the six-match Ashes series in 1978-79 and nine in the five-match Ashes series in 1901-02.Jasprit Bumrah bowled 24.4% of India’s overs and took 40% of their wickets•Getty Images
Bumrah in a league of his own
Jasprit Bumrah had an outstanding series with the ball. He bagged 32 wickets across five Tests, averaging 13.06 with a remarkable strike rate of 28.3. His wickets tally is the joint highest for an India fast bowler in a Test series, and the highest for any India bowler in an away series.
Excluding Bumrah, the other India seamers claimed 40 wickets at an average of 34.82, striking every 52.65 balls. Including the spinners, India’s overall non-Bumrah bowling average in this series was 37.08, with a strike rate of 58.6. Bumrah’s absence in the fourth innings in Sydney eliminated any chance of India defending a target of 162.Bumrah’s performance stands out; the ratio between his average and that of the rest of India’s bowlers is the fifth-highest among fast bowlers with 25 or more wickets in a Test series. The highest ratio is 3.78, achieved by Richard Hadlee, who averaged 12.15 in the three-match Trans-Tasman Trophy in 1985, while the other New Zealand bowlers averaged 45.95.
Through the series, Bumrah bowled 151.2 overs, which accounted for 24.4% of all balls bowled by India’s bowlers, while his wickets tally represented 40% of the total. Only Scott Boland, who played in just three Tests in this series, had similar numbers; he bowled 15.47% of the total balls bowled by Australia’s bowlers while capturing 21 wickets, amounting to 24.71% of their total tally.
Lower orders come to the party
Throughout the series, top-order pairs struggled to form significant partnerships. Only 14 of the 92 partnerships for the first five wickets went past 50 runs, and only three reached three figures. Out of 85 Test series with 90-plus partnerships across the first five wickets, only five have recorded as few as three century stands.
The 14 fifty-plus partnerships for the first five wickets rank as the joint second-fewest, only behind the 12 in the 1976-77 India-England series and tied with the 14 in the 1905-06 South Africa-England series.
However, the middle and lower orders contributed significantly at various stages. There were 12 partnerships for the last five wickets that exceeded 50 runs, including two that surpassed 100 runs. The last five wickets contributed 1933 runs during the series, accounting for 43.84% of the total runs scored.This percentage is the seventh-highest for series runs added by the last five wickets in a five-match Test series. The partnerships for the last five wickets in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy faced 3191 out of 7664 balls – 41.64%. That’s the highest percentage of balls faced by the last five wickets in any five-match Test series where complete fall-of-wickets data is available.
Pat Cummins dismissed Rohit Sharma four times for the cost of just 11 runs•Getty Images
The match-ups that made the difference
“I was getting Bumrah-ed.” That was Usman Khawaja summing up a series in which he scored 184 runs across five Tests with an average of 20.44. Khawaja was dismissed six times in eight innings by Bumrah; no other batter was dismissed more than four times by a bowler in this series.Khawaja managed just 33 runs against Bumrah, averaging 5.50, but performed notably better against the other India bowlers, scoring 151 runs at an average of 50.33. And he wasn’t the only Australian opener to struggle against Bumrah.
Bumrah also played a role in limiting Nathan McSweeney’s debut series to just three Tests, dismissing him four times for a mere 15 runs. In contrast, McSweeney did well against the other bowlers, scoring 57 runs off 146 balls with just one dismissal. Travis Head was another who fell to Bumrah on four occasions.Related
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Pat Cummins dismissed Rishabh Pant four times for 51 runs, having never dismissed him in Tests before this series. Scott Boland proved effective against Virat Kohli, dismissing him four times in five innings at an average of just seven.Rohit Sharma’s opposite number was the reason behind his miserable series, as Cummins took his wicket four times in four innings for just 11 runs. Yashasvi Jaiswal stood out against Nathan Lyon, scoring 63 runs off the 122 balls he faced without being dismissed.
These are the most runs any batter scored off a bowler in this series without getting dismissed, and the only head-to-head spread over 100 balls without a dismissal. Steven Smith scored 53 dismissal-free runs against Nitish Kumar Reddy and 52 against Ravindra Jadeja.Travis Head was the only batter from either side with a 50-plus series average•Associated Press
Head and Jaiswal top the batting charts
Only three batters scored over 300 runs in the series: Head with 448, Jaiswal with 391, and Smith with 314. Among the 18 players who batted in six or more innings, only Head (56) averaged over 50. Jaiswal, with an average of 43.44, was the only other player to average above 40.
With Head and Jaiswal leading the run charts, left-hand batters had a higher success rate in this series, averaging 30.75 compared to 20.79 for right-hand batters. The average of 20.79 for right-hand batters is the eighth lowest among 175 Test series of five or more matches. Only one of the top seven series has occurred since 1980, the Wisden Trophy in 2000, with a low average of 19.32.
Holding the trophy against everyone
This series marked the end of Australia’s decade-long wait for a Test series win against India; their previous victory came at home during the 2014-15 season. Since then, Australia have played four four-match Test series against India, two at home and two away, with all four series concluding with a 2-1 margin in favour of India.Until this series, India were the only opposition against whom Australia did not hold a series trophy. This marks the third instance of Australia holding the series trophy against all nine Test nations simultaneously. Australia also hold the ICC World Test Championship title alongside series trophies against all nine opponents.
Australia had initially achieved this feat in 2004 by defeating India, but their run ended in 2005 when they lost the Ashes. They regained it in late 2006 during their 5-0 whitewash against England at home. South Africa became the second team to hold series trophies against all nine opponents after winning in England in 2012, and held onto their full set until Australia defeated them in 2013-14.India also managed this in 2017 following their home-series win against Australia, but their run ended after they lost to South Africa in early 2018. India regained the series trophy against their first nine Test opponents in 2021 after defeating New Zealand at home, but their run was short-lived, as they lost their immediate next series in South Africa.