5 current bowlers who struggle away from home in Tests

Ravichandran Ashwin
Ashwin has not been able to pick wickets in overseas conditions with the same intensity as he has in India

With the IPL done and dusted, the time has come for Test match cricket to take centre stage as we have close to six months of uninterrupted Test action coming our way, some of which has already begun in England as Sri Lanka try to find their foot against a rampaging English side. Quite different from the shortest format of the game, Test cricket requires an entirely different set of skills, and cricketers have often found it hard to adjust from one format of the game to another. Even those who do make a successful transit, are often found wanting when they are required to perform in foreign conditions, that are drastically different from the conditions they’ve played during their formative years.

The reason why many of the Test playing nations have struggled away from home is the fact that the players find it tough to acclimatise to different conditions, and the opposition's comfort while playing at home also acts as a further deterrent for the visiting teams. Over the years, there have been bowlers as well as batsmen who have excelled at home, but their frailties have been exposed severely every time that they have travelled to a foreign land. Here, in this piece, we enlist 5 such bowlers.

Note: For the sake of better analysis, we have only considered bowlers who have picked up at least 100 Test wickets and have played against at least 7 of the 9 Test playing nations.

1. Ravichandran Ashwin

India’s leading spinner in all three formats of the game, Ravichandran Ashwin, has found it tough to perform as well as he has in India, whenever the team has toured other nations. While his Test match statistics of 176 wickets from 32 matches at a decent bowling average of 25.39 are good, there is a massive difference between his numbers at home and those away from home. The off-spinner averages 20.92 from 19 Test matches that he has played in India and has picked up 126 wickets at a strike-rate of 46.3. These numbers change astronomically if one takes a look at the spinner’s stats outside India.

In 13 away Tests, Ashwin has picked up only 50 wickets and his average shoots up to 36.66 and the strike-rate worsens to 67.5. Conditions everywhere in the world aren’t conducive to spin bowling, and the Indian frontline spinner, in his six-year career certainly hasn’t found a way to contain the batsmen, let alone pick up wickets whenever India have toured other nations, especially outside the subcontinent. His lack of penetration as well as restriction, has often been detrimental to his team’s cause and India have often struggled with the ball more than they have with the bat whenever they have toured abroad.

Ashwin has struggled the most in Australia, as in the 6 Test matches that he has played there his bowling average has been 54.71 and the strike rate has been 97.0. He has only managed to pick up 21 wickets. Australia has also been one of the two countries where India haven’t won a Test series in all of their history, and their prime spinner’s poor show down under hasn’t helped their cause one bit.

2. Jerome Taylor

Jerome Taylor
Jerome Taylor has played only 46 Test matches for the West Indies despite making his debut in 2003

One of the mainstays in the constantly changing West Indian set up, as far as Test matches are concerned, Jerome Taylor has had a similar tale of not doing well away from home. Having made his debut in 2003, Taylor has enough experience in competitive first class cricket, but despite the fact that he has played for the West Indies for so many years, he hasn’t really excelled in the nation’s away tours. From 46 Test matches, he has 130 wickets to his name, at an average of 34.46 and a strike rate of 59.6.

However, in the matches that he has played outside the Caribbean, the bowling average has burgeoned to 48.46 and the strike rate has shot up to 76.4. Out of the 46 Tests, Taylor has played 24 away from the Caribbean islands and has managed to pick up 47 wickets at the aforementioned average and strike rate, as compared to his 22 home Tests, wherein the fast bowler has accumulated 83 wickets. That he has played just 46 Test matches in a 13-year-long career also speaks about the issues that the bowler has had with injuries and form.

Against all the prominent Test playing nations, Taylor has struggled to pick up wickets and restrict the flow of runs in matches played in overseas conditions. In Australia, he averages 100 with the ball from 4 Tests, having conceded 300 runs and picked up only 3 wickets, while in England, Taylor has managed to account for 6 wickets in 5 Test matches at a dismal average of 88.50. In South Africa, New Zealand and Pakistan, Taylor averages 50.66, 41.50 and 32.07 from 4, 5, 3 and 6 Tests respectively. Only in Sri Lanka has Taylor been able to replicate the success that he has had with the red ball at home, picking up 6 wickets in 2 games at an average of 23.50.

3. Rangana Herath

Rangana Herath
Rangana Herath has been Sri Lanka’s prime spinner in Tests ever since Muralitharan’s retirement

Ever since the great Muttiah Muralitharan retired, Rangana Herath has carried the mantle in the spin bowling department for Sri Lanka, and to be honest, he has been successful to a large extent. But that has been only because the left-arm spinner has played most of his games in the subcontinent, majorly in Sri Lanka, because if we take a look at his stats outside the comfortable premises of the island nation, a shocking revelation would come into the picture. 203 out his 300 Test wickets have been taken in Sri Lanka from 38 Tests. From the remaining 31 Tests that Herath has played outside Sri Lanka, he has picked up just 97 wickets at an average of just over 39.

This is in stark contrast to his home average, which is 24.58 in addition to his decent strike rate of 54.4. Outside Sri Lanka, the most that he has played in any country is England, where the veteran has played 7 Tests and has picked up 17 wickets at an average of 47.58, followed by New Zealand, where he has played 4 and has picked up 8 wickets at 64. In South Africa, India, and Australia, the 38-year-old has played 3 Tests each and has bowling averages of 27.70, 48.81 and 33.91 respectively.

Sri Lanka’s prime spinner, who has made Galle and Colombo two of his favourite fortresses, hasn’t been able to replicate similar kind of performances whenever he has stepped out of his homely comforts.

4. Umar Gul

Umar Gul
Umar Gul had emerged as a promising talent back in 2003, but couldn’t perform consistently for Pakistan

Pakistan have had a history that has been rich with quality fast bowlers that the nation has produced over the years. One such fast bowler, who had impressed one and all when he had appeared on the international stage for the first time in 2003, and who slowly faded away with time, mainly due to his lack of penetration in unhelpful conditions has been Umar Gul. With 163 wickets from 47 matches, Gul has been one of the better Test bowlers for Pakistan, but the contrast between his performances in Pakistan and those outside his home country give ample reasons behind him not being a regular feature in the Pakistani Test side.

In 11 home Tests, Gul has picked up 52 wickets at a good bowling average of 27.17 and a decent strike rate of 48.0. However, whenever he has ventured away from the Pakistani soil, he has not been able to emulate similar performances. After Pakistan were forced to shift their home matches to the UAE in the wake of the terror attacks on the Sri Lankan cricket team in 2009, Gul played 10 games across different venues in the UAE, but his performances saw a slight decline. The 32-year-old has picked up 37 wickets from 10 Test matches in the UAE at 30.10, and his strike rate has also shot up to 55.4.

These stats deteriorate even further if we take into consideration his performances away from either of Pakistan’s cricketing homes. In 26 away Test matches – far greater in number than his home Tests across countries combined – Gul has accounted for 74 scalps at 40.89 and a strike rate of 68.2. Clearly, his edge with the ball, as well as his penetration skills have declined in overseas conditions and he hasn’t been able to provide Pakistan with wickets at crucial junctures.

5. James Anderson

James Anderson
James Anderson has been England’s highest aggregate wicket-taker in Tests

Perhaps one of the greatest English fast bowlers of all time, James Anderson has been, to be quite frank, a conditions-dependent bowler. While his stats of 451 wickets from 115 Tests may speak highly of him, it must also be noted that he has picked up almost twice as many wickets at home as he has picked away from home, while playing just 21 more home Tests. From 65 home Tests, Anderson has 284 wickets, while from 44 away Tests matches, he has accounted for 145 wickets. His bowling averages at home, and away from home, have been 25.59 and 34.86 respectively, while his strike-rates have been 51.6 and 66.3.

Quite obviously, the most number of matches that Anderson has played outside England have been in Australia, where in 13 Ashes encounters, the 33-year-old has 43 wickets to his name at 38.44. For a bowler of his class and magnitude, picking up wickets on Australian surfaces that have historically been conducive to fast bowling, should have been easy. However, his stats speak otherwise. In South Africa and New Zealand too, Anderson has averaged 39.92 and 36.27 and has only been a pale shadow of his imperious best.

Nevertheless, to his credit, the man with the most number of Test wickets for England has done exceedingly well in Indian conditions, a country where several fast bowlers have found their lives to be very difficult. In India, Anderson has picked up 22 wickets from 7 Tests at 29.81. At the same time, however, the fast bowler only has 11 wickets from 4 Tests in Sri Lanka at an average of 40.72. West Indies has been the only other Test-playing nation other than India where Anderson’s bowling average is in the 20s, as he averages 24.92 from 7 Tests and has picked up 26 wickets.

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Edited by Staff Editor