India start at an Australian stronghold

This time next week India would have begun another attempt to win their first Test series in Australia. Their opening game is at an Australian stronghold - the Melbourne Cricket Ground - where the hosts have won eight consecutive Tests since they beat India in 1999-2000. Since then, Australia have also brushed aside West Indies, South Africa, England and Pakistan, making their winning streak at the MCG the second longest at a particular venue.

For two decades after the Second World War, West Indies were hard to beat at the Kensington Oval in Barbados; they won four and drew 11 of the 15 Tests played there. "Hard to beat" soon became "impossible to draw against" as Clive Lloyd's team started a streak of 12 consecutive victories with a nine-wicket win against Australia in March 1978. Their dominance in Barbados ended in April 1994 when England triumphed by 208 runs, and since then West Indies' proud record at the Kensington Oval has deteriorated. Of their last 14 Tests at the venue, they have lost six, won five and drawn three.

India's recent victory against Pakistan in Delhi extended their winning streak at the Feroz Shah Kotla to seven. Most of those victories were set up by Anil Kumble, who has played six of those games and taken 55 wickets at 15.41 each. However, before they beat Zimbabwe in the one-off Test in 1993, India's record in Delhi was poor; they had lost five of their previous 11 Tests and won none.

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It's rare for a visiting team to have a significantly better record than the home team at a particular venue - unless it's in Bangladesh or Zimbabwe - but England haven't beaten Australia at Lord's since June 1934. Australia's unbeaten streak at the ground has grown to 18 matches, of which they've won nine and drawn as many. England's longest undefeated stretch at Lord's is 13 Tests with four victories and nine draws. It began after the defeat against Australia in 1961 and ended with another loss to Australia in 1972.

Even the West Indian dominance at the Kensington Oval does not compare to Pakistan's record at the National Stadium in Karachi. They were unbeaten there for 45 years, during which they played 34 Tests, winning 17 and losing none, and for good measure they also won another Test in the city, at the Defence Stadium in 1993-94. England were the first team to beat Pakistan in Karachi, in 2001, and it was nearly another seven years before Pakistan were beaten there again, by South Africa in 2007.

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New Zealand have three home grounds in the top ten entries for longest streaks without a win at a venue. It took them 26 years and 45 Tests to record their maiden Test victory and it was during this period that New Zealand played the majority of their 11 and 10-match winless streaks at Christchurch and Wellington . However, their longest streak without success is at Auckland, the venue of their first Test victory, against West Indies in 1955-56. After that win they played 17 Tests at Eden Park, losing seven and drawing ten, before beating Australia in 1981-82.

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When West Indies finally broke their jinxed run at the MCG in 1979, they did so in emphatic fashion, winning by ten wickets and a day to spare. It came after seven consecutive defeats at the venue, which was the longest in terms of matches until Bangladesh equalled it in Chittagong. West Indies had come close to winning on two previous occasions at the MCG, but Australia prevailed by one wicket in 1951 and two wickets a decade later.

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