Led by Virat Kohli, the Indian cricket team had a fantastic tour of Australia in 2018/19 and will no doubt look to repeat the success. While there are still some concerns about India’s team strength due to injuries in the red ball games, the limited overs contests are expected to be more even despite the absence of Rohit Sharma.
Last time, India beat Australia quite comprehensively as they roared back in the ODI series thanks to the likes of Kohli and Yuzvendra Chahal. India won the three-match series 2-1 and will look to repeat it this year as well.
While they’re at it, one expects a few records to tumble. Here’s a look at some records that either Australia or India could rewrite during the course of the three-match ODI series.
1: Virat Kohli is one century away from his fourth in Australia against Australia. He has scored 5 in all on Australia soil, the same as Rohit Sharma. No other opposition cricketer has scored as many tons in Australia. Among the two squads, David Warner has scored the most tons in Australia (9).
6: Only 6 Indian bowlers have taken five-fors against Australia in ODI cricket. In the current squad that distinction lies with spinner Yuzvendra Chahal.
9: Yuzvendra Chahal, one of Virat Kohli’s most potent weapons against Australia, is nine wickets short of his 100th. Chahal has played 52 games and the fastest to the century for India was Mohammed Shami with 56 games. Jasprit Bumrah took 57 innings. Chahal has the chance to become the fastest Indian bowler to reach the 100-wicket mark in ODIs.
13: India have won only thirteen games against Australia when touring Down Under out of a total of 51 they have played against them. Only 2 games have had NR while there are 36 defeats.
17: Aaron Finch is 17 runs away from the 5,000-run mark in his ODI career and has so far batted 125 times. His opening partner Warner achieved it in 115 innings while Kohli took 114.
27: India all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja (33 matches), among the present squad, has had the most success in terms of wickets against Australia. Coach Ravi Shastri played two games less for the same number of scalps. Jadeja also has the best economy rate against Australia in the current squad – 5.26 runs per over. 6/42 by Ajit Agarkar (2004) and Yuzvendra Chahal (2019) have been India’s best spells in Australia against Australia.
40% - India’s win percentage against Australia in ODI cricket. Only South Africa, West Indies and England have a better record. South Africa is the only country with a percentage above 50 (51.47%).
63/10: The lowest total ever in an ODI in Australia was scored by India against the hosts in 1981. It is India’s second-worst score ever in ODI cricket.
101/10: The lowest total ever scored by an Australian side against India in ODI cricket and it came in Perth in 1991.
107 runs: India’s biggest win in terms of runs vs Australia in their own backyard came in Perth in 1991. India’s biggest win in ODIs in Australia however was against South Africa when they won by 130 runs in 2015.
174 runs: Kohli is 174 runs away from being India’s most prolific active cricketer on Australian soil in ODI cricket. Rohit has 1,328 runs from 30 innings while Kohli has 1,154 from 26 innings. The record for the most runs scored by an Indian cricketer in Australia is held by Sachin Tendulkar with 1,491 runs in 46 innings.
212 runs: Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli’s partnership in 2016 in the 4th ODI at Canberra is the highest for the second wicket vs Australia. Rohit and Kohli also put on 207 for the second wicket in the same series in the first game in Perth. The overall highest partnership ever against Australia was between Faf du Plessis and David Miller when they scored 252 runs in Hobart in 2018.
252 runs: Shreyas Iyer is not too far away from his 1,000th run in ODI cricket and has played 16 innings for his 748. The fastest to the 1,000-run milestone in ODI cricket is Fakhar Zaman who took 18 innings. The fastest Indian to the milestone was Kohli, who took 24 innings, as did Shikhar Dhawan.
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