Adelaide ground profile

Australia have an excellent record at home down the years, but of the five grounds on the current Test rota, Adelaide might just offer England their best chance of success, statistically at least.

Adelaide is one of the most pictuiresque cities in Australia, but for some reason, the home side have not had things all their own way over the years.

India won there in 2003 on their way to a brilliant 1-1 drawn series, while England even managed victory back in 1994, although that was when it staged the fourth Test.

In the 64 Tests to have been played there, Australia have won 32, lost 16 and drawn the other 16, their worst ratio of wins to Tests played of the five grounds in use. . The reason is hard to fathom. True, the effects of the faster bowlers is negated by a fairly slow pitch, but Shane Warne has taken 61 wickets in 12 Tests there, so it definitely turns. That makes Australia's decision not to bring Stuart MacGill into the fold a slightly strange one, but we will only know the real state of the pitch come the end of the match.

Of the last 20 Tests there, nine have been won by the side batting first and five by the side batting second, with the other six ending in draws.

However, batting first would appear to be the way to go as the average score for each batsman in the side batting first there, in the past 20 Tests, is a whopping 42.8. That falls to 36.4 for those in the team batting second.

For the batsmen in the team batting third, it's down to 31.1 and batting last looks difficult as it's just 26.4.

In fact, the highest total that any side has chased to win a Test there is 315, made by Australia more than a century ago, in 1902 to be exact, to beat England - and that was in a timeless Test. Other than that, the next best was West Indies' 233-4 against the Aussies in 1951.

P W1 W2 T D %R Ave Ave1 Ave2 Ave3 Ave4 runs/6 balls
20 9 5 0 6 70% 35.14 42.8 36.4 31.1 26.4 26.4 2.95