India-Australia Test series – a statistical summary

Summary of results

India batting

Hundreds:

202, CA Pujara, Ranchi (1 inns)

117, WP Saha, Ranchi (1 inns)

India bowling

5 wickets in an innings:

6/41, R Ashwin, Bengaluru (2 inns)

6/63, RA Jadeja, Bengaluru (1 inns)

5/124, RA Jadeja, Ranchi (1 inns)

Australia batting

Hundreds:

178*, SPD Smith, Ranchi (1 inns)

111, SPD Smith, Dharamsala (1 inns)

109, SPD Smith, Pune (2 inns)

104, GJ Maxwell, Ranchi (1 inns)

Australia bowling

5 wickets in an innings:

8/50, NM Lyon, Bengaluru (1 inns)

6/35, SNJ O’Keefe, Pune (1 inns)

6/35, SNJ O’Keefe, Pune (2 inns)

6/67, JR Hazlewood, Bengaluru (2 inns)

5/92, NM Lyon, Dharamsala (2 inns)

10 wickets in a match:

12/70, SNJ O’Keefe, Pune

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Statistical highlights of the series:

India’s defeat in Pune by 333 runs was their second biggest defeat at home (by runs margin). The heaviest defeat has also been inflicted by Australia. In 2004 they had beaten India by 342 runs.

India’s run-aggregate of 212 runs in the Pune Test (105 + 107) was their lowest in a complete match at home. The previous lowest was 242 against England in Chennai in 1976-77. It is also India’s fourth lowest match aggregate in all Tests.

Steve Smith completed his 1000 runs against India. By taking just 14 innings, Smith shared the Australian record with Matthew Hayden.

Mitchell Starc completed his 1000 runs in Test cricket in Pune. With this, Starc also completed the coveted the all-round double of 1000 runs and 100 wickets. He became the 14 Australian to accomplish this feat. Starc is the youngest Australian to do so at 27 years 24 days.

Steve O’Keefe’s match figures of 12 for 70 in Pune are the best by any spinner against India beating fellow team-mate Nathan Lyon’s 12 for 286 in Adelaide in 2014. In fact there has been only one better performance by any bowler against India – 13 for 106 by Ian Botham in Mumbai in 1980.

Nathan Lyon’s figures of 8/50 in Bengaluru are the best innings bowling figures for Australia against India and the second-best for an Australian spinner against any country, after Arthur Mailey’s 9/121 vs England in Melbourne in 1921. His figures are also the best by a visiting bowler in India, eclipsing South Africa’s Lance Klusener’s 8/64 in 1996.

Bengaluru Test provided the first instance in Test cricket of four different bowlers taking six or more wickets in each innings of a Test - Lyon had 8/50 in first innings, Jadeja 6/63 in the second, Hazlewood 6/67 in the third and Ashwin 6/41 in the fourth.

India’s 75-run win in Bengaluru provided the sixth instance for them to successfully defend a fourth innings target of 200 or less. Three of those instances have been against Australia!

The Ranchi Test was Australia’s 800 Test. They became second team after England (983) to reach this landmark. Australia had also played their 700th Test against India – in Nagpur in 2008, which they lost by 172 runs.

The Ranchi Test was Virat Kohli’s 26 as India’s captain. He is yet to play the same eleven in two consecutive matches!

Steve Smith completed his 5000 Test runs in Ranchi. By taking only 53 Tests, he became the third quickest to reach this landmark after Don Bradman (36) and Sunil Gavaskar (52).

Steve Smith’s 178* in Ranchi is the highest score by an Australian captain in a Test in India, beating Michael Clarke’s 130 in Chennai in 2012-13. It is also the third highest score by an Australian in India, after Dean Jones’ 210 in 1986 and Matthew Hayden’s 203 in 2001 – both in Chennai.

Glenn Maxwell – with his 104 in Ranchi – became the 13 player to score a hundred in each of the three formats of international cricket – Tests, One-Day Internationals and Twenty20 Internationals. Only Shane Watson had done so for Australia before Glenn Maxwell.

Cheteshwar Pujara’s 202 in Ranchi was his third double hundred in Tests. He had made 206* against England in Ahmedabad in 2012 and 204 against Australia in Hyderabad in 2013. Only five Indian batsmen have scored more double hundreds than Pujara – Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar (6 each), Rahul Dravid (5), Sunil Gavaskar and Virat Kohli (4 each). Pujara also joined Wally Hammond (4), Brian Lara (3), Graeme Pollock, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman (2 each) as the batsmen scoring more than one double hundred against Australia.

Wriddhiman Saha’s 117 in Ranchi was his third Test hundred. Now only MS Dhoni (6) has made more hundreds than him as a wicketkeeper for India. Saha went ahead of Budhi Kunderan, Farokh Engineer and Syed Kirmani, who each has scored two hundreds. Saha’s innings is also the highest by a number 8 batsman in India - Australia Tests, beating MS Dhoni’s 92 in Mohali in 2008.

Cheteshwar Pujara batted for 672 minutes and faced 525 balls during his epic innings. He now holds the Indian record of longest innings in terms of balls. Rahul Dravid had faced 495 balls in his 270 against Pakistan in Rawalpindi in 2004. There have been only three longer innings played by Indians in Test cricket: Rahul Dravid - 740 minutes for his 270 in Rawalpindi in 2004, Sunil Gavaskar – 708 minutes for 172 vs England in Bangalore in 1981 and Navjot Singh Sidhu – 673 minutes for his 201 vs West Indies in Port-of-Spain in 1997.

With Ranchi Test ending in a draw, it was after nine consecutive result-producing Tests that a Test between India and Australia in India ended in a draw. The last drawn Test between India and Australia in India was in Delhi in 2008.

The Ranchi Test provided only the third instance of Australia saving a Test in India despite conceding first innings lead of 150 or more. The other two occasions came in Delhi in 1979 and Mumbai Wankhede in 1986.

Three new grounds made their Test debut in this series – Pune, Ranchi and Dharamsala. This was the first time in Test history a country used three new grounds in a series, which was not the country’s first series.

The Dharamsala Test was the 50 Test match between India and Australia in India. Australia became only the second team to play 50 Tests in India after England (60).

Kuldeep Yadav in Dharamsala became first left-arm chinaman bowler to appear for India in Tests. He is only the second chinaman bowler from the subcontinent (after Sri Lanka’s Lakshan Sandakan).

Steve Smith’s 111 in the first innings was his seventh hundred in his last 8 Tests against India!

Kuldeep’s figures of 4/68 made him only the third Indian bowler to take four wickets on his first day in Test cricket, joining Mohammad Nissar (vs England at Lord’s in 1932 in India’s first ever Test) and Mohammed Shami (vs West Indies in Kolkata in 2013). His figures are also the third best by a chinaman bowler in debut innings in Tests after Lakshan Sandakan’s 4/58 and Australia’s ‘Chuck’ Fleetwood-Smith’s 4/64.

Ravindra Jadeja became tenth Indian player to complete the allround double of 1000 runs and 100 wickets in Test cricket, joining the ranks with Vinoo Mankad, Kapil Dev, Ravi Shastri, Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath, Harbhajan Singh, Irfan Pathan, Zaheer Khan and Ravichandran Ashwin.

Nathan Lyon has now taken 64 wickets against India – second most by any spinner against India, after Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan (105).

Ravindra Jadeja’s tally of 142 wickets is now the highest by any left-arm bowler in his first 30 Tests. Australia’s Mitchell Johnson had taken 137.

It is only the fourth time that India have managed to win a series after losing the first Test. The other instances were: vs England in 1972-73, vs Australia in 2000-01 and vs Sri Lanka in 2015.

KL Rahul ended the series with six fifties on his name – the joint-most by any batsman in a series without scoring a hundred. Rahul emulated West Indies’ Conrad Hunte (vs Aus, 1964-65), Australia’s Allan Border (vs Eng, 1989), England’s Mike Atherton (vs Aus, 1993) and Australia’s Chris Rogers (vs India, 2014-15).

Ajinkya Rahane became ninth Indian to win his first Test as captain, joining the ranks with Polly Umrigar, Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag, Anil Kumble and MS Dhoni.

India have now won their last seven consecutive series. They beat Sri Lanka 3-0 in Sri Lanka in 2015, South Africa 3-0 in India in 2015-16, West Indies 2-0 in West Indies in 2016, New Zealand 3-0, England 4-0, Bangladesh 1-0 and Australia 2-1 in India in 2016-17.

India have now won their last series against all other nine Test playing nations. Only Australia and South Africa had accomplished this feat, before India.

Ravinchandran Ashwin ended the season 2016-17 with 82 wickets in 13 Tests – most by any bowler in a season. South Africa’s Dale Steyn had taken 78 wickets in 12 Tests in 2007-08 season. Ravindra Jadeja – with 71 wickets – is third in this list.

Cheteshwar Pujara finished with 1316 runs in the season 2016-17 in 13 Tests. Only one batsman – Australia’s Ricky Ponting (1483) in 2005-06 – has scored more runs than him in a season. The previous Indian record was held by Gautam Gambhir with 1269 runs in 2008-09 season.

Pujara finished the 2016-17 Indian first-class season with 2064 runs in 17 matches, thus becoming the first batsman to aggregate 2000 runs in an Indian first-class season. Chandu Borde- with 1604 runs in 1964-65- held the previous record.

Ravindra Jadeja became only the third player in Test history to score 500 runs and take 50 wickets in a season. Only Kapil Dev (in 1979-80) and Australia’s Mitchell Johnson (in 2008-09) had accomplished this feat before Jadeja, who finished with 556 runs and 71 wickets in 2016-17 season.

India finished the season 2016-17 with 10 wins (out of 13 Tests). Only one side has registered more wins in a season – Australia won 11 in 2005-06. Australia also won 10 Tests in 1999-00.