Number cruncher: Statistical analysis of the Australia vs India Test series

The four-match series between Australia and India ended with the hosts clinching the series 2-0. Australia won the first Test at Adelaide by 48 runs and the second Test at Brisbane by four wickets. The next two Tests at Melbourne and Sydney both ended in a draw. [caption id=“attachment_2044201” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Steve Smith made the most runs by an Australian in a four-Test series. Getty Sports Images[/caption] It was a much improved performance from the last time India toured in 2011-12, when they lost the series 4-0. The series was also noteworthy for the sudden Test retirement of MS Dhoni, who brought the curtain down on his career after the draw in the third Test, with Virat Kohli stepping in to his shoes on an interim (but probably permanent) basis. The series was completely dominated by the batsmen and saw many new records with the bat being established. Australia scored 500 in the first innings in all four matches, while India managed at least 400 in all of their first innings. The 5870 runs scored in the series are the most ever scored in a four-match series, beating the record set in another Australia-India series (in 2003-04).

There were 44 instances of a batsman crossing 50 in the series. This figure is a record for a four-match series and is bettered only six times if we take all 5 or 6-match series also in to the account. Take a look:

Here’s a look at the players who were most successful with the bat in the series: and some who were not that successful:

Steven Smith and Virat Kohli were in the form of their lives and established a plethora of records in the series. Kohli became first player in Test history to score hundreds in his first three innings as captain. Smith, on the other hand, scored a hundred in his first three Tests as captain. Smith and Kohli now both feature in the list of highest run-aggregate in a four-match series.

This is how the two teams performed in the series:

And this how they lost their wickets:

It will be interesting to find how the openers, middle-order batsmen and tail-enders performed in the series. Australia clearly had the edge in all the three groups as can be seen from the tables below:

Let us now see how the top-half and bottom-half for two teams performed in the series. That is, how many runs the two sides were able to add to their total at the fall of the fifth wicket and thereafter.

The last five Australia wickets added 100 or more runs on four occasions. India, on the other hand, had only two such occasions. Twice in the series the Australian bottom five outscored the top five. India had only one such instance. 76 percent of India’s runs came from the top-five partnerships and only 24 percent from the bottom-five. The corresponding figures for Australia were 66 percent and 34 percent respectively. The above figures still don’t portray the complete picture. This is because many innings were incomplete. For example, in the second innings of Adelaide Test, Australian bottom-half added 24 runs to the total, but they did not lose any wicket in doing so. Similarly only one wicket was lost in the second innings of the Brisbane Test. Now the above study will take only the runs in to account and discard the number of wickets lost. A better way of knowing how good or bad bottom-half had been is by way of looking at the average contribution from top-five partnerships and bottom-five partnerships. The result is mind-boggling. Take a look:

The flat tracks at almost every venue left very little for the bowlers, so it was not surprising that most of them struggled. Still, some were able to raise their game and make their presence felt.

The following table gives a comparison of pace vs spin for the two sides in the series. Australian bowlers outdid their counterparts in both categories. That Australian pacers performed better than India pacers in familiar conditions was a foregone conclusion even before the start of the series, but what is surprising is the vast difference in the performance of spinners for the two sides. While India’s batsmen found Nathan Lyon too hot to handle for a second time in successive series, India’s spinners barely made any impact on the Australian batsmen.

If the series made an entry in to the record books for batting feats, surely bowlers would have ended with something dubious in nature. The series now tops the list of series in which bowlers conceded 100 or more runs on most occasions. There were 25 such occasions in the series - 16 for India and nine for Australia. Those who did so more than once in the series were: Nathan Lyon (6 times), R Ashwin (4), Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami (3 each), Varun Aaron, Ishant Sharma and Mitchell Johnson (2 each). Apart from 25 total instances, the 16 for India is also a new record for one team in a series.