Cricket: 5 world-class batsmen who were made to look ordinary in India

Batsmanship in cricket over the years has been evaluated by the performances overseas. Batsmen become true legends if they are able to play overseas as good as they do on their home conditions. Players from subcontinent find it hard to adjust on the fast pitches of countries like Australia, South Africa and England. Similarly players from those places face the spin tests in the subcontinent.There have been absolute legends of the game who have scored thousands of runs all over the world across all formats but had struggled to get going on the slow decks of India.Here are 5 such world-class batsmen who at times failed to make an impact in Indian conditions:

#1 Hashim Amla

Amla’s terrific record in India has been spoiled by a poor tour

In the ongoing South Africa’s tour of India, Amla has failed to repeat the heroics of the last tour. Last time he refused to get out at all, this time he has had a forgettable outing.

In the 3 test matches so far, he has averaged a mere 18. Though the pitches have been extremely difficult to bat on, Amla’s approach against the spinners has not been yielding him much runs. Perhaps more than the demons in the pitch, it has been the threat of the turning ball which has made him lose his wickets. He was even out leaving a straight ball off Ravindra Jadeja that went on to hit the middle stump.

In the ODIs, where South Africa had a fruitful time winning the series 3-2, Amla ended up with a meagre average of 17.8. His dry run though did not affect the team much because of other’s contributions, but a prolific run-getter like him has had a tour to forget.

#2 Ricky Ponting

Australia’s best batsman struggled against the turning ball

Probably the best player against the short ball, Ricky Ponting, did not enjoy the turning tracks of India. It was the historic test series of 2001 between Australia and India which included the Test at Kolkata where India came from behind and won the Test match after being enforced to follow on.

It surely was the worst time of Ricky Ponting’s career where he could manage only 17 runs in 3 test matches at an average of 3.4. Harbhajan Singh was having the time of his life and the off spinner accounted for Ponting’s wickets in all the 5 innings.

Not only in that seriesdid Ponting not have a great record in India in that particular series, his overall average in India is 26.84, way below his career average of 51.85. In the 14 Tests that he played in India, he could only score one century. Perhaps the short ball in India never rose to the height that he would have liked.

#3 Graeme Smith

While most overseas batsmen struggle against spin, Smith’s issue was swing

Graeme Smith had a highly unorthodox batting style mostly because of his grip and stances. If someone has troubled the former South African captain the most, then it had to be Zaheer Khan. He could never tackle the swing mastery that Zaheer possessed.

When South Africa travelled to India the last time around, Zaheer dismissed him twice in his 3 innings. His scores read 6, 4 and 20 in the 3 innings. He averaged 10 in 2 matches.

Though the series was tied at one a piece at the end, Smith never looked in shape against Zaheer which he had never managed to do throughout his career. His batting average in India is 33 as compared to the career average of 47.76.

#4 Graham Gooch

Gooch’s numbers weren’t as impressive in the sub-continent

The legendary batsman from England had a fabulous career having tremendous numbers in all formats of the game. But there was a duration in India where he struggled to make it big.

In the Test series in 1993, India enforced a whitewash over England winning all 3 matches. Gooch featured in 2 of the matches. In the 4 innings he scored 17, 18, 4 and 8. His average read 11.75 in 2 matches which proved to be one of the reasons for England’s series defeat.

He struggled to score freely in the sub-continent, averaging under 40 in both Pakistan and Sri Lanka, but his average of 42.21 in India is the best of the lot, which also highlights how poor he was in the 1993 Test series.

#5 Brian Lara

Lara wasn’t at his best both in India or against India in Tests

In a career spanning over 16 years, Brian Lara played just 3 Tests in India and that too way back in 1994. The 3-match series was eventually drawn with India and West Indies winning game apiece.

In the three Tests, he scored a total of 198 runs averaging 33. It was his last innings in the third test of quick fire 91 of 104 balls that helped his average, otherwise he struggled in the tour.

It was not just this tour, Brian Lara has an average of 34.55 against India in all Tests which is his lowest against all the test playing nations. He averaged 52.89 at the end of his career. For a batsman like him, who did not seem to have any weaknesses against any type of bowling, this is a serious dip in performances against India.