3 well known Indian batsmen who have not scored a Test century in Australia

Scoring a Test century in Australia is an arduous task for any visiting team batsman due to the nature of the typical Australian wickets. Those, particularly at WACA and GABBA, consist of spongy bounce which is difficult to negotiate for the batsmen.

Australia have produced some of the best bowlers in the world like McGrath and Lee in the past. Hence, this used to make the task more difficult for the overseas batsmen to score a century.

Despite the pitches and great Australian pace attack, several great Indian batsmen like Sehwag, Dravid, Laxman, Sachin, and Sunil Gavaskar have scored a century in the Aussies own backyard in trying circumstances. There are some who have unfortunately not achieved this feat due to their various reasons.

Let us have a look at the three well known Indian batsmen who have not scored a Test century in Australia.

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#3 Gautam Gambhir

Australia v India - Second Test: Day 3

Gautam Gambhir is among one of those well known Indian batsmen who didn't score a single hundred in their career in Test cricket against Australia. Despite being a prolific run-getter as an opener for India, Gautam was, unfortunately, unable to convert the starts he got into a big score on board for India. His highest score in Australia was 83 at the SCG in 2012.

Having scored 181 runs in 8 innings at an average of 22.62, Gambhir was not a proper hooker of the ball, was short in stature, and hence struggled against the short-pitch bowling of the tall Australian bowlers.

Moreover, the bounce in the wicket certainly didn't help his cause when he attempted to play his trade-mark drive on the off-side. On the other hand, his opening partner Virender Sehwag had an impressive average of 46.86 and scored two hundreds in Australia.

Hence, Australia was not a happy hunting ground for one of India's prolific opening batsman.

#2 Cheteshwar Pujara

Australia v India: 3rd Test - Day 2

Cheteshwar Pujara is considered by many as the next "Rahul Dravid" of India due to his resistance on the crease, strong and solid technique, good footwork, ability to leave the ball outside the off-stump and play the ball on its merits.

Unlike Dravid who went on to score 1166 runs in 32 innings which includes a double century at Adelaide in 2003, Pujara hasn't scored a hundred till now "Down Under."

In 6 innings, Pujara has scored only 201 runs at an average of 33.50. His highest score in Australia so far has been 73. The problem with his is that he is not a great puller of the ball as was evidenced in the recently concluded Test series in England. Hence, Australia will look to take advantage of this and keep targetting the short pitch length while bowling to Pujara.

#1 MS Dhoni

Australia v India: 3rd Test - Day 3

MS Dhoni is one of those batsmen who have failed to score a Test century in Australia. Furthermore, he also hasn't scored a single Test century for India outside the subcontinent.

As per the standards set by him, these stats do not reflect a positive picture regarding his batting acumen overseas. Despite his world-class wicket-keeping abilities, MS Dhoni was disappointing with the bat in Test matches in Australia. He managed to score just 311 runs in 18 innings at a below-par average of 19.43 with a personal best of 57.

His mediocre batting performance against Aussies was probably because his feet movement was pretty poor and hence had the habit of edging the full-length swinging delivery outside the off-stump.

Despite being one of the best hookers in the modern-day game, his failure to counter swing was one weakness which led to his downfall in overseas conditions.