ICC World Cup 2015: Australia vs India - Player vs Player stats

Who will come out on top?

Thursday’s match at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) will see what is known in the sporting parlance as the ‘clash of the titans’. Two teams – one with 7 straight wins and the other a formidable home team will battle it out in the second semi-final.

After cutting a sorry figure during the Carlton Mid Tri-Series, India have become invincible during the World Cup, comfortably beating every team that have come in their way. Australia have been all over India in the recent past and have continued in a similar vein against most teams they have played against in the World Cup.

In the previous edition (2011), when India and Australia were drawn to meet in the quarter-finals, everybody from pundits to fanatics cried out loud claiming that both teams were meeting too early in the tournament. This time around, the date seems more than ideal as the four best teams qualified for the penultimate leg.

What would delight India in their journey so far is the surprising fashion in which their bowlers have responded to the call of duty by bowling out the opposition on all occasions, which is certainly something that was unheard of for Indian standards. Australia, meanwhile, have mostly basked in the glory of one man Mitchell Starc in their bowling regiment.

The depth in the batting line-up is where Australia score some brownie points against India, and moreover, the Australian batsmen can take some cues from the way they dealt with the same Indian attack during the tri-series. However, the absence of a proper spin option means some much-needed variety is missing in the Australian bowling attack.

Four players in the top 5 of the Indian batting line-up have notched up centuries and the lower order have also built crucial partnerships during chases but the onus is on the bowlers who will need to penetrate into the rock-solid Australian lineup.

Here, we statistically compare the expected playing XIs of both the sides and attempt to judge which team will start the contest as favourites. The winner between each duo has been judged by their ODI career stats:

India	Australia	Who’s better?
Rohit Sharma	David Warner	Equal
Runs - 4186, Avg - 39.49, SR - 82.36	Runs - 1990, Avg - 34.91, SR - 89.15
Shikhar Dhawan	Aaron Finch	IND
Runs - 2462, Avg - 43.96, SR - 89.62	Runs - 1646, Avg - 36.57, SR - 88.44
Virat Kohli	Steven Smith	IND
Runs - 6536, Avg - 51.87, SR - 89.91	Runs - 1388, Avg - 37.51, SR - 88.46
Ajinkya Rahane	Michael Clarke	AUS
Runs - 1540, Avg - 30.95, SR - 78.31	Runs - 7897, Avg - 44.61, SR - 78.81
Suresh Raina	Shane Watson	AUS
Runs - 5381, Avg - 36.50, SR - 93.40 Wickets - 32, Avg - 49.46, Eco - 5.05	Runs - 5656, Avg - 40.69, SR - 90.40 Wickets - 166, Avg - 31.56, Eco - 4.94
MS Dhoni	Brad Haddin	IND
Runs - 8434, Avg - 52.38, SR - 89.00	Runs - 3115, Avg - 31.46, SR - 84.21
Ravindra Jadeja	Glenn Maxwell	AUS
Runs - 1737, Avg - 32.71, SR - 84.29 Wickets - 143, Avg - 32.65, Eco - 4.81	Runs - 1344, Avg - 35.36, SR - 126.37 Wickets - 33, Avg - 37.02, Eco - 5.51
Ravichandran Ashwin	James Faulkner	AUS
Wickets - 132, Avg - 31.85, Eco - 4.87 Runs- 648, Avg- 18.00m SR- 88.28	Wickets - 54, Avg - 31.85, Eco - 5.53 Runs- 793, Avg- 44.05, SR- 112.32
Mohammed Shami	Mitchell Johnson	AUS
Wickets - 87, Avg - 24.11, Eco - 5.50	Wickets - 234, Avg - 25.46, Eco - 4.84
Umesh Yadav	Mitchell Starc	AUS
Wickets - 63, Avg - 32.45, Eco - 5.77	Wickets - 79, Avg - 18.65, Eco - 4.80
Mohit Sharma	Josh Hazlewood	AUS
Wickets - 21, Avg - 30.58, Eco - 4.76	Wickets - 18, Avg - 20.70, Eco - 4.49
Australia 7 – India 3

NOTE: The lineups mentioned above are predicted teams and might not actually be the XIs that take to the field tomorrow.

Summary

The number on the table conspicuously points towards Australia and gives license to fans to pin their hopes on the home team. India, too, have proven their worth as a wily contender in the tournament but beating Australia in Australia in a semi-final at that is like setting the Thames on fire. But, Dhoni, as a captain, who has already tasted a World Cup win will bring in all his experience into the match as opposed to his Australian counterpart.

Home ground advantage, which generally is an intangible factor, may however not come into play as the reports state that there will be a domination of the tricolor flag over the blue ensign tomorrow. All these and India’s current supersonic form is an indication that the game might strike an equipoise.

Australia, indeed, are going to start as favourites and the pressure will be on the Indians but then cricket is a game of glorious uncertainties and such crunch games mostly boil down to one ‘out of the blue’ performance like the one produced by Grant Elliot against South Africa on Tuesday.