As we saw, a Test series whitewash is rare and it is established by the fact that there are only 66 occurrences in close to 150-year old history of the format. What is even rarer is a Test series whitewash being done by an away team. This is because a home team will always have an advantage over the visitors in this format, owing to the familiarity of the conditions.
And it takes something remarkable for the visiting sides to get over the line against the hosts even in a single Test match. But there are teams, who have aced the overseas challenges and went on to conquer them without dropping a single Test and winning all of it. Here is the list of special series wins by an away team over the hosts.
| TEAM | OPPONENTS | RESULT | HOST COUNTRY, YEAR |
|---|---|---|---|
| England | South Africa | 3-0 | SA, 1895/96 |
| England | New Zealand | 3-0 | NZ, 1963 |
| West Indies | England | 5-0 | ENG, 1984 |
| Australia | New Zealand | 3-0 | NZ, 1999/00 |
| Australia | Sri Lanka | 3-0 | SL, 2003/04 |
| Australia | South Africa | 3-0 | SA, 2005/06 |
| India | Sri Lanka | 3-0 | SL, 2017 |
| England | Sri Lanka | 3-0 | SL, 2018/19 |
| England | Pakistan | 3-0 | PAK, 2022/23 |
| New Zealand | India | 3-0 | IND, 2024/25 |
Key Stats
10 – The number of times a visiting side has whitewashed hosts in a Test series with a minimum of 3 Tests. There is also an instance where Australia won a 3-match Test series against Pakistan played at a neutral venue (2002/03 at Sri Lanka and Sharjah).
1 – West Indies’ victory over England is probably the greatest away series win in Test history as the visitors won all 5 Tests on their tour to England. In the rest 9 times, the number of Tests hasn’t exceeded more than three in a series.
4 – England has the most away series wins by way of whitewash. They have thumped their opponents in all the games of an away Test series 4 times and the next successful is Australia who have done this thrice.
3 – Sri Lanka holds the unwanted record of being on the receiving end of whitewash at home, the most times. They have been whitewashed thrice at home by their opponents and they are followed by New Zealand & South Africa, who have lost their games of a home series, twice each.
Sri Lanka is also the only country where team India have conducted their only away whitewash for themselves. Find out India’s country-wise Test cricket records here.
6 – Since the start of this century, there have 6 instances of an away team winning all the Tests of a series and five of them came in the subcontinent.
