Why fast bowlers should love the subcontinent

For Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden, the run is the thing © AFP

Though Australia lost their first one-day international of the TVS Cup, there were still lessons for India to learn from the approach of Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden at the start of Australia's innings. At the 15-over stage, India were 74 for 1, while Australia had made 81 for no loss.

The scores were pretty similar, but the means of achieving those results varied widely, and reflected the different approaches of the two teams. As the table below indicates, the Indians played 15 more dot-balls, took 18 fewer singles, and hit seven more boundaries. Both Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman were guilty of playing out dot-balls: Tendulkar didn't score off 32 out of 49 balls (65%), while for Laxman, the figures were 26 out of 38 (68%). John Wright has often stressed the need for better running between the wickets, but going by these stats, the Indians have plenty of catching up to do.

Different strokes - How the Indians and Australians tackled the first 15 overs
	Score after 15	Dot-balls	Singles	Twos	Boundaries
India	74 for 1	61	12	4	12
Australia	81 for 0	46	30	6	5

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South Africa's 0-1 series defeat in Pakistan was the first time they failed to win a Test in a series in the subcontinent. Excluding their recent trip to Bangladesh, South Africa have, in five previous tours, won three times (once each in India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan), drawn once (in Sri Lanka), and lost once. (Bangladesh as a venue has been left out of these calculations because not all international sides have toured there.) The series defeat came in 1996-97 against India, but South Africa did manage to eke out a win - in the second match of the three-Test series at Eden Gardens, Kolkata.

In fact, over the last 10 years, South Africa have clearly been the best team in the subcontinent, outperforming even Australia, who have a 7-7 win-loss record. Despite the heroics on their last trips to Pakistan and Sri Lanka, England have won only three out of 13 Tests in the last decade in the subcontinent (excluding their current series against Bangladesh).

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Talk about fast bowling in the subcontinent, and the image that immediately comes to mind is of hot weather and dead wickets where bowlers toil away with little reward. "Had Kapil Dev not played so many Tests in India, he would have ended up with far more wickets" is a common refrain. The career stats of the top six fast bowlers from the subcontinent reveal something else, though: they have all performed much better at home than abroad.

As the table below indicates, Wasim Akram is the only bowler with an away record that is almost as good as his figures at home. For the rest of the bowlers, the difference in their bowling averages is at least five runs per wicket, while their strike rates dip alarmingly too. If you thought conditions in Australia and England were ideal for these bowlers, try this: Vaas averages 108.50 in England (four wickets from three Tests), Srinath 50.70 in Australia (20 from eight), Waqar 40.50 in Australia (14 from seven) and Kapil 39.18 in England (43 from 13).

So, would Kapil have taken 500-plus wickets had he played more Tests abroad? Unlikely. In fact, his best chance of reaching the 500-wicket mark would have been to play all his 131 Tests in India: assuming that he took a wicket every 55.7 balls - that's his strike rate in home Tests - Kapil would have ended up with 498 wickets in the total overs he bowled in his entire career.

		Their wickets tally had they only played ...
	Total wickets	At home	Away
Imran	362	414	329
Akram	414	443	398
Waqar	373	419	344
Kapil	434	498	384
Srinath	236	271	213
Vaas	216	231	203