India: The great test for batters

Data reveals that the average score in the first and second innings of Tests in India has consistently dipped since 2005-09

NEW DELHI: In each of the first two Tests for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Australia won the toss and elected to bat. Until a decade ago perhaps, that would often imply at least one-and-ahalf days of exposure to the sun and chasing red leather for the team bowling first.

Barring the odd surface that gripped and spun from the outset — the 2004 India-Australia Test at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai comes to mind — conditions in India were usually pristine for run-making on the first three days of a Test. It was on the final two days that the pitch would rapidly deteriorate and help the spinners reap the benefits. This is why games that were seemingly meandering to dour draws could suddenly pick up the pace and give us a pulsating climax after tea on the fifth day. Over the past decade though, there seems to have been a concerted push for turning tracks that has resulted in the nature of Test cricket in India undergoing a significant change. Before this series began, former India coach Ravi Shastri didn’t blink an eyelid while calling for pitches where the ball spun from the first day. As we witnessed in Nagpur and Delhi, the pitch began to take turn in the opening session of the opening day. It brings spinners into play immediately and takes the toss out of the equation to an extent. In the period from 2020 to now, the team losing the toss has won four out of ten matches. From 2005 to 2009, the corresponding number was only seven out of 24 Tests.

Australia bore the brunt of the spin-friendly surfaces in the first innings of the first two Tests, getting bowled out for 177 and 263 respectively without even lasting the entire opening day. While the conditions should provide no excuse for their inept displays so far, especially in the third

2000-2004 innings in Delhi where they panicked by their own admission, it must be said that these tracks demand a lot more than what they perhaps did of Australian teams in the past.

When Australia toured India under Ricky Ponting in 2008, for instance, they lost the four-Test series 0-2 without ever coming close to winning a Test. But if

2005-2009

2010-2014 they looked a lot more competitive than what they have done in the ongoing series, it is because the pitches in that series allowed their batters to notch up big scores. The lowest score in the first innings of that series was 430, by Australia in the first Test in Bengaluru. Even when India batted first and racked up a colossal total of 613/7 declared in

2015-2019 2 days 4 days

2020-2023 3 days 5 days

(In %) the third Test in Delhi, the Australians were able to respond with an equally mammoth 577. No surprise that the Test ended in a draw.

According to data by Cricviz, the average score in Tests in India has consistently dropped from 2005-09 onwards. In the first innings, the average score in Tests in India for the period 2005-09 was 407. Since then, there has been a steady drop – 378 in 2010-14, 358 in 2015-19 and 316 in 2020-23. In the second innings too, a similar pattern plays out. While the average scores in 2005-09 and 2010-14 were 392 and 403 respectively, it dipped sharply to 324 in 2015-19 and then further to 228 in the current period.

The last pitch that started out as a batting belter, and then crumbled as the game progressed, was at Chepauk in February 2021. England won the toss and racked up 578 in the first innings. Chasing 420 in the fourth innings, India folded for 192. The characteristics of the pitches for the next three Tests promptly changed, resulting in first-innings totals of 329, 112 and 205.

The surfaces have had an impact on not just overseas batters but the Indians too. Since 2020, Virat Kohli is averaging 26.07 in 14 innings in India and Pujara 22.16 in 13 innings. Neither of them has managed a century. That the top Indian players don’t play domestic cricket regularly anymore, where their skills against spin can be spruced up, may be a factor to consider.

The nature of tracks has had a significant bearing on the timespan of Tests in India. As the data points out, 50% of Tests are finishing in three days now while only 20% of matches are going into the fifth day. In 2005-09, a whopping 88% of Tests finished on Day 5 and just 8% of games ended within three days.

While no Test finished inside two days from 2000 to 2014, two Tests have not even gone to Day 3 since 2015.

As the focus now shifts to the third Test in Indore from March 1, anything other than a turning track for the game will be a surprise. Just to break the pattern of these turners though, one perhaps wouldn’t mind a batting belter where both teams rack up 500 in their first innings and the game stretches to the fifth day. The Australians certainly wouldn’t complain.