The three match series against South Africa which starts on Wednesday in Visakhapatnam will be India’s last home tests of the current decade. And, win, lose, or draw, they will finish 2019 as the most successful test playing nation at home over the past ten years.
To date, in that period they have played 45 home tests, winning 32 and losing only 4, giving them a winning percentage ratio of 71.11%, and a win/loss ratio of 8:1. That puts them far above the next country on the list, Australia (winning percentage 64.71%, win/loss ratio 3.67), whilst next week’s opponents South Africa are third (winning percentage 63.63%, win/loss ratio 2.73). Rounding out the top five are England (winning percentage 61.19%, win/loss ratio 2.56), and New Zealand (winning percentage 50.00, win/loss ratio 2.71).
In terms of series, India has won 12 of the 14 series they have played in this decade. The only series they have actually lost was against England in 2012, where they went down 2 – 1 to the visitors after England won in Mumbai and Kolkata. Two years earlier, South Africa managed a draw after their tour of the sub-continent ended one-all, with the third match ending in a draw.
India also lead the way when it comes to margin of victory – they have the highest percentage of victories by an innings, and the second-highest when it comes to victories by 8 wickets or more. And no one can do better than India when it comes to clean sweeps in test series – they are number one again with six.
In terms of the departments of the team, India’s batsmen have the best home batting average of all countries. Their hundreds per match ratio of hundreds per match (1.42) is bettered only by Australia, whilst no team has passed 400 more times than India (400).
Meanwhile, not surprisingly, the Indian spinners have had a large part to play in their success, taking 560 of the 800 opposition wickets to fall in this decade on home soil (70.13%). They have the best home average of 25.22 amongst all countries, with Sri Lanka the next nearest to their figure (28.22).
Only two men have taken more home wickets in this decade that Ravichandran Ashwin (The English pace duo of James Anderson and Stuart Broad).
Lastly, and by no means least, Virat Kohli is the most successfully home captain in the decade, with a win/loss ratio of 15, five better than New Zealand’s Kane Williamson who is next on the list. Their period of real dominance has coincided with Kohli being in charge of the team, as seen by the fact that his predecessor in the role, MS Dhoni, is only fourth on the list with a Win/Loss ratio of 5.
