The test series starts on the 26th of December and I was checking out the difference between the two teams. What better way to do than looking at the batting averages.
Here are the batting averages of the Australian team:
| Name | Career | Against India |
| Ricky Ponting | 59.42 in 112 tests | 52.20 in 15 tests |
| Adam Gilchrist | 49.27 in 92 tests | 29.95 in 14 tests |
| Michael Clarke | 46.70 in 29 tests | 57.14 in 4 tests |
| Matthew Hayden | 52.56 in 91 tests | 62.20 in 11 tests |
| Michael Hussey | 86.18 in 18 tests | - |
| Phil Jaques | 69 in 4 tests | - |
| Andrew Symonds | 32.68 in 15 tests | - |
Just going by their career averages, the batsmen should yield around 395 runs and of course there is always the tail who can chip away with some useful runs(around 55 based on their average). So, if everyone play to their average, the total score per innings should be around 450.
(Going by their averages against India in recent years from S Rajesh’s column in CricInfo, Australia would end up scoring around 430)
Here is the batting average for the Indian team:
| Name | Career | Against Australia |
| Wasim Jaffer | 38.45 in 25 tests | - |
| Rahul Dravid | 55.97 in 115 tests | 51.03 in 18 tests |
| Saurav Ganguly | 43.17 in 99 tests | 32.46 in 16 tests |
| VVS Laxman | 44.10 in 86 tests | 52.03 in 16 tests |
| Sachin Tendulkar | 55.06 in 142 tests | 53.11 in 21 tests |
| MS Dhoni | 38.76 in 22 tests | - |
| Yuvraj Singh | 37.07 in 20 tests | 15.66 in 2 tests |
If this is the batting line up that goes against Australia, and if they play to their averages they would end up getting 312 runs. The average of the Indian tail (that includes Irfan Pathan with an average of 30), should be able to contribute another 67 runs. So, India could end up with a score at around 380. That is about 70 runs lower than the batting average of the Aussies!
(Based on recent scores against Australia, this figure would be around 365)
We all know that Australia is stronger than India (actually they are the strongest team in World cricket at the moment) , and the stats probably go on to prove that in one way.
But when the test match starts on Wednesday, statistics won’t count for much - it will be the performance on the field on that day that will matter the most.
Let’s just hope India put on their best performance…and hope it is good enough to beat the Aussies.
-Mahesh-
