Australia is considered one of the toughest places to tour and most teams have struggled to topple the Australian Test team in their backyard. This is because the Aussies have always been a formidable unit and become almost unbeaten when they are at home. However, there are instances when the strong Australian team has been toppled and one such team who have inflicted on them is India.
A visiting team needs to have a strong bowling unit to compete with Australia and India’s bowling unit is one of the reasons why they were able to clinch 2 back-to-back series wins there. So in this article, we will see how the Indian bowlers have fared in Australia over the years.
Most Test Wickets for India in Australia
| Player | Innings | Wickets | BBI | Average |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kapil Dev | 21 | 51 | 8/106 | 24.58 |
| Anil Kumble | 18 | 49 | 8/141 | 37.73 |
| Ravichandran Ashwin | 18 | 39 | 4/55 | 42.15 |
| Bishan Singh Bedi | 14 | 35 | 5/55 | 27.51 |
| Jasprit Bumrah | 14 | 32 | 6/33 | 21.25 |
| Mohammed Shami | 15 | 31 | 6/56 | 32.16 |
| Erapalli Prasanna | 15 | 31 | 6/104 | 31.12 |
| Ishant Sharma | 23 | 31 | 4/41 | 48.54 |
| Umesh Yadav | 18 | 31 | 5/93 | 44.22 |
| Bhagwath Chandraskhar | 13 | 29 | 6/52 | 30.27 |
Key Stats
12 – Number of Indian bowlers to have taken 25 or more wickets in Test cricket in Australia. Zaheer Khan comes in the 12th position with 25 scalps in Australia, while Ajit Agarkar has taken 27 wickets and both have done it in 7 Test matches each.
Out of these 12, Jasprit Bumrah‘s average of 21.25 is the best, and former pacer Ishant Sharma‘s 48.54 is the lowest for bowlers who have taken at least 25 wickets in Australia. Bumrah is also the only current generation bowler to be among the top ten elite bowlers list (with minimum 100 Test wickets) with the best bowling average in Tests.
Kapil Dev is the only Indian bowler to have taken 50 or more Test wickets in Australia and he has also registered the best-ever innings figures (8/106) there.
31 – Out of his 35 Test wickets in Australia, Bishen Singh Bedi scalped 31 wickets in a single series. The former skipper took these many wickets from just 5 games at an average of 23.87 with 3 five-wicket hauls. This remains the best tally for an Indian bowler in a single series down under. Can you guess what’s the most number of wickets a bowler has taken in a single Test series?
It is interesting to note that Bhagwat Chandrasekhar took 29 wickets in the same series and he comes second in the list of the most wickets taken by India bowlers in a single series in Australia.
Find out: Which Indian batter has scored the most Test runs down under?
