From a statisticians Eye India's limited overs tour to Australia

India is back on Australian soil for the first time since the ICC World Cup 2015 for a limited-overs tour. The team will play five One-Day Internationals and three Twenty-20s. The tour has started off with a positive note for India with victories over Western Australia XI in both of their practice games though they have lost Mohammad Shami to injury. Fresh of dumping the no. 1 test side South Africa 3-0 at home, India will be pressing hard to secure their first ODI series win in Australia. Australia, on the other hand, has its confidence sky high after test series wins over West Indies and New Zealand.

The importance of this series is far greater because it is the first time India will be playing a bilateral series in Australia. The series will begin on 12^th of January at Perth but before that we should take a look at India’s records against Australia and in Australia.

ODI Matches:

Team Records:

India has never played in a bilateral ODI series in Australia so we can assume that they have a 100% series win over Australia in Australia but the reality is far worse than thought. India has only beaten Australia once in an ODI in Australia since 2008. The 4-wicket win at Adelaide came in 2012.

Batting Records:

Sachin Tendulkar leads the ODI charts as well, followed by Australians. David Boon is at second, Alan Border at third, Matthew Hayden at fourth and Ricky Ponting at no. 5 complete the Top 5.

From the current Indian squad, MS Dhoni has scored the Most Runs; 405 runs in 13 games.

Bowling Records:

Brett Lee has taken the most wickets in India vs Australia in Australia contests. Irfan Pathan is at second with 22 wickets just ahead of Kapil Dev with 21 wickets. Craig McDermott is at 4^th on the list while Ravi Shastri completes the Top 5.

Ishant Sharma has the Most (9) wickets from the current Indian squad in such contests.

Twenty-20 Internationals:

The ODI series will be followed by a 3-match T20I series. India has previously played three T20s in Australia with India losing two and winning one. The last time both teams played in a T20 in Australia was in 2012. India leads the overall result tally with 5 wins against Australia’s four.

Ravichandran Ashwin, Vinay Kumar and Shane Watson have all taken 5 wickets each in India vs Australia T20I contests – the most while Yuvraj Singh leads the runs chart with 247 runs in 6 outings.