Five celebrated foreign legends who failed in India in Test cricket

Muttiah Muralitharan: Matches: 11 Wickets: 40 BBI: 7-100 Avg: 45.45 5-wicket-haul: 2

The silent assassin. A bowler who could spin a ball square even on glass. Those eyes. The guile, the mystery, the perseverance. 800 Test wickets. The great Muttiah Muralitharan bamboozled batsmen all over the world with his bag of tricks. His record at home, in particular, is mind blogging.  Such was Murali’s dominance at home that during the span of his career, India, despite boasting of some of the greatest players’of spin bowling, could never win a Test series on Lankan soil.

Which is why it is so baffling to find Muralitharan in this dreaded list. Murali got his first taste of Indian soil during Sri Lanka’s sojourn in 1994. The off-spinner returned with 12 wickets at an average of 35.00. But his performances and fortune took a catastrophic turn three years later when he averaged a barely believable 103.66. The  2005 tour was easily his best.

The off-spinner claimed 16 wickets at an average of 31.00 before another ordeal at the hands of the swashbuckling Virender Sehwag four years later, meant he ended his last tour of the country with just nine wickets at 65.66. Overall, in 11 Test matches, the champion off-spinner managed just 40 wickets at an average of 45.45, a far cry from his career average of 22.72.