India's performance in SENA (SA, Eng, NZ, Aus) since 2000

India won their 3rd Test series in England in the history under Rahul Dravid's captaincy.

There are a lot of criteria in cricket, according to which any team’s performance is determined. When teams travel abroad to play test cricket with the host countries, then they are said to have playing “Away test series”, which means away from home. They need to get used to the conditions very quickly and adapt to the situations to perform well. These away performances are rated higher rather than home performances for any team as it is very tough to perform overseas and win series there because the host countries have a lot of advantages of home conditions.

When India travel to SENA (South Africa, England, New Zealand, Australia), they need to be very tough as there are different sort of pitch conditions and weather conditions as to that of in Asia. In all these countries, the climate is very cold mostly in the whole year, barring two or three months which they call Summer. India travel to any of these countries during Summer in that particular country. So here is the statistical overview regarding how well the India have performance so far in SENA since 2000.

India in SENA (South Africa, England, New Zealand, Australia)

India in South Africa Test Series records since 2000

India came so close to win their first ever Test series in SA in 2010-11.

India have travelled to South Africa five times since 2000. India did not get much of a success there as they have only won just 3 test matches on South African soil till date. In-fact, India tasted their first ever victory on SA soil in 2006 at Wanderers under Dravid’s captaincy. There are a lot of eye-catching performances from many individuals. Sachin Tendulkar is the highest run scorer among Indians in South Africa. Whereas, Anil Kumble has proved to be the best Indian bowler on SA soil till date with 45 wickets from just 12 matches. Below are some individual statistics of Series as well as of both batsmen and bowlers:

Stats:

Hence, it is clear from the above stats that there were many good individual performances from Indian batsmen and bowlers. Somehow in testing times the batsmen may have failed, or bowlers couldn’t perform, and this is the reason why India are yet to win a test series in South Africa. India came very close to win a series there in 2010-11 season which was by far the best performance by any Indian team in South Africa.

India in England Test Series records since 2000

India beat England by 1-0 in 2007 Test series in England.

India share very rich history of cricket with England. India traveled England for the first time in 1932 to play a solitary Test match which was the first ever Test match for India in their history. Since then, a lot have changed over the decades and both these teams served their fans with some fantastic performances over the years. Since 2000, India have played 5 Test series in England. India famously won the test series in 2007 under Rahul Dravid’s captaincy. This was India’s 3^rd Series win on English soil after that historic 1971-72 series win under Ajit Wadekar's captaincy and 1986 series win under Kapil Dev’s captaincy. So here are some of the stats of Indian players on English soil since 2000.

Stats:

India performed far better in English conditions since 2000 barring that whitewash in 2011. India came very close to winning the series in 2002 which was eventually ended in a draw. Team India made history in 2007 by winning their 3rd series in England.

India in New Zealand Test Series records since 2000

Gautam Gambhir scored 445 runs in 3 matches which helped India beat NZ by 1-0 in 2009.

New Zealand is known for overcast conditions where the balls move a lot and create problems for batsmen. So, the batsman who performs well in New Zealand is seriously talented. India have played 4 series in NZ since 2000 and won 1 of them. Like in South Africa, there were some good individual performances from India in NZ as well. India have never played more than 3 match series in NZ since 2000. Indian Bowlers have more success in NZ than the Indian batsmen. Below are the stats suggesting the Indian team’s performance in New Zealand.

India won the test series in NZ in 2008-09 Season. Gautam Gambhir was the star performer with the bat in that series scoring 445 runs in just 3 matches with 2 centuries and a fifty. Thus, India have somehow performed well in New Zealand.

India in Australia Test Series records since 2000

India became the first ever Asian team to win the Test series in Australia in 2018-19.

India-Australia is a great modern-day rivalry in cricket. When these two teams take the field against each other, their fans are never short of entertainment. India have always got under the noses of the Australians especially when they traveled down-under. India played out 5 series in Australia since 2000. In these 5 series, there were many battles, many top quality knocks many hostile fast bowling spells and a lot of controversies too. India won the most recent series in Australia in 2018-19 which is the first ever series win for any Asian team in Australia. Here are some of the stats of Indian players in Australia:

Stats:

Australia has been a happy hunting place for some of the Indian batsmen because they like to score big runs down under. There are many records created by the Indian batsmen, be it Kohli’s 692 runs from 4 matches in 2014-15 series, Tendulkar’s marathon 241* at Sydney or Dravid’s match winning knocks of 233 & 72* at the Adelaide Oval in 2003-04 series. Indian bowlers also have had many good performances like Anil Kumble 8-141 & 4-138 in Sydney in 2004, Ishant Sharma making Ricky Ponting his bunny or even Umesh Yadav breaking the stumps and Bumrah nailing the pin-point Yorkers consistently in 2018-19. All these were a sight to watch for any Indian cricket fan. Amidst of all these, there are a lot more controversies as well like, Tendulkar being adjudged LBW on Shoulder, Harbhajan vs Symonds “Monkeygate Scandal” or Kohli vs Johnson rivalry in 2014-15 series. So, there are a lot of memories from down-under (Australia) for the Indian fans and we hope to see a lot more of it in the upcoming series in 2020-21 where India may be playing a day-night test at the Adelaide Oval. The BCCI president Sourav Ganguly recently said that he expects Kohli to win in Australia rather than to just perform well, so this will be a fantastic series we can guess. On the other end Kohli and Co. will have the advantage of the previous series where they emerged victorious. Hence, as cricket fans we are going to get a cracker of an Australian Summer. Meanwhile, everybody is waiting for things to get normal during this pandemic, we too pray to God that the normalcy returns soon.

Thanks

Rahul