A test for India's batsmen and Sri Lanka's bowlers

India pushed the home team all the way during the four-Test series, but Australia remain the side to beat in the CB Series tri-nation tournament which got underway last week. Some of the experienced hands are no longer around to guide them, and while that might make some difference, Australia still have plenty of firepower to ensure that the wins keep rolling in.

Since 2000, Australia have maintained such a high standard that the results have gone their way regardless of opposition or venue. Their win-loss ratio at home is an incredible 4:1 - which translates into one defeat every five matches - while overseas the ratio is only slightly poorer. The only other teams that have a win-loss ratio of greater than three have been South Africa and Sri Lanka, but only when they are playing in the familiar confines of home. Winning overseas has been a far greater struggle for both these teams. Sri Lanka have stacked up 50 wins and just 15 losses at home, but abroad they have only managed marginally more wins than defeats. The story is much the same for South Africa - only 20 defeats at home since 2000, but almost three times as many overseas.

India have had far more success abroad over the last few years than they have traditionally had, but much of that has been in Tests. In one-day internationals their record outside home is poorer than those of Australia, South Africa, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

The table below examines the batting performances of teams when playing at home and overseas, and the numbers that stand out are the differences in the home and away batting indices for India, Pakistan and South Africa. (The batting index is calculated by multiplying the average runs scored per wicket by the runs scored per ball.)

The batsmen from India and Pakistan have made good use of the flat tracks at home, with an index of more than 31, but replicating those performances overseas has been a much greater challenge - the Indians, for example, have an index of 22.86 (an average of 28.28 at 4.76 per over) in Australia. The story is much the same for South Africa, but it's entirely different for the Sri Lankans. Their slow tracks and sluggish outfields have made run-scoring difficult even for their own batsmen; their run-rate, and batting index, are higher overseas than at home. Even in Australia, their index of 24.75 (average of 29.70 at 5 runs per over) is slightly better than their numbers at home.

Difference between home and away batting indices* for teams since 2000

Team	Home - ave/ RPO	Batting index	Away - ave/ RPO	Batting index	Difference
South Africa	39.67 / 5.28	34.91	34.33 / 4.86	27.81	7.10
Australia	38.45 / 5.38	34.48	41.61 / 5.44	37.73	-3.25
India	36.76 / 5.48	33.57	30.73 / 4.91	25.15	8.42
Pakistan	36.18 / 5.26	31.72	29.15 / 4.81	23.37	8.35
England	32.10 / 5.05	27.02	28.13 / 4.72	22.13	4.89
New Zealand	31.38 / 5.09	26.62	28.47 / 4.82	22.87	3.75
Sri Lanka	31.23 / 4.72	24.57	31.03 / 5.05	26.12	-1.55
West Indies	29.92 / 4.78	23.84	30.91 / 4.88	25.14	-1.30
Zimbabwe	26.00 / 4.52	19.59	24.59 / 4.33	17.75	1.84
Bangladesh	24.47 / 4.30	17.54	20.65 / 4.09	14.08	3.46

* Batting index is calculated by multiplying the average runs per wicket by the average runs scored per ball.

Sri Lanka's difficult batting conditions at home, though, have made things much tougher for their bowlers when they travel abroad. They are the only team whose bowling index (calculated by multiplying the average runs conceded per wicket by the runs conceded per ball) overseas drops by 50% when compared to the corresponding numbers at home: they average 22.19 runs per wicket and concede 4.08 runs per over at home; overseas those numbers climb to 29.45 and 4.85.

The one bowler who best exemplifies Sri Lanka's relative ineffectiveness when they are not playing at home is Chaminda Vaas. His clever changes of pace and the ability to bowl cutters have been invaluable on slow pitches where the ball grips the surface, but on truer and faster tracks, batsmen have had the measure of him. In ODIs at home since 2000, he averages 22.61 at an economy-rate of 3.56 for a bowling index of 13.42; overseas that number goes up to 19.84 (average 27.43, economy-rate 4.34). His biggest struggles have been in Australia, which doesn't augur well for his team's chances in the CB Series: in his last 21 games in the country, since 2000, Vaas has only taken 20 wickets at an average of 48.05, and an economy-rate of 5.09.

On the other hand, bowlers from India and Pakistan have relished playing away from home - they have done much better overseas, with a difference of more than 4.5 between their home and away bowling indices.