Stats preview of the fourth Test between West Indies and India at Port of Spain where the visitors have a chance of registering a rare third win in an away series.
3-3 West Indies’ win-loss record against India in Port of Spain; the last Test played between the teams at this venue was won by India by 37 runs. The hosts last beat India here in 1989 when they won by a huge margin of 217 runs. This will be the 13th Test played between the teams at this venue; six of them have been drawn.
1968 The only time India have won three Tests in an away series. They had beaten New Zealand by a margin of 3-1 on that occasion. India are leading 2-0 in this series. Should they win the Port of Spain Test, it will also be only the sixth time that they win three Tests in any series, away or home. The last such win for them came against South Africa at home when they beat the visitors 3-0 in a four Test series.
112 India’s ranking points if they win the series by a margin of 3-0, which will help them retain their newly acquired No. 1 rank on the ICC ranking system. Australia’s 0-3 loss to Sri Lanka has meant that India are currently at the top of the rankings, before they are updated again after the West Indies-India series. A 2-0 result or worse for India would leave the top rank with Pakistan.
2-1 West Indies’ win-loss record at Port of Spain in the last ten years – their best at any home venue in Tests. They beat New Zealand by 10 wickets in their last Test here, in 2014. Their other win came against Sri Lanka in 2008. They drew their Tests against England and Australia, and lost to South Africa in 2010.
5 Number of India batsmen who have scored at least 200 runs in this series at an average 50 or higher. Apart from Ajinkya Rahane, whose 243 runs in the series have come at an average of 121.50, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, R Ashwin and Wriddhiman Saha are the other India batsmen to have done so. None of the West Indies batsmen have managed to aggregate 200 runs in the first three Tests. Should five India batsmen manage to finish this series with 200-plus runs at an average north of 50, that would be a first for India in an away series.
46.11 West Indies pacers’ current bowling average in this series. This is only the eighth time that they have averaged 40 or worse in a series at home. Their captain, Jason Holder, has taken just one wicket from the 86.4 overs he has bowled and has given away 239 runs. Their only five-wicket haul came in the second innings of the last Test when Miguel Cummins reaped 6 for 48. Excluding that spell, West Indies’ fast bowlers have taken 12 wickets in the series at an average of 65.17.
20.77 Batting average of West Indies’ top three batsmen in this series – their third-worst ever in a Test series at home involving three or more matches. They have scored a total of 374 runs from 18 innings in this series with a highest of 74. Kraigg Brathwaite averages the best at 28.00, among the four batsmen that have been tried by the home team, having scored 168 runs including two fifties from six innings.
29.91 Shikhar Dhawan’s batting average in Tests outside Asia; he has made 718 runs including one hundred and three fifties in 24 innings. After the Test series in New Zealand in 2013-14 – when he made 215 runs at an average of 53.75 in two Tests – Dhawan’s average in Tests outside Asia has been 26.68. The career statistics for India’s other opening option Murali Vijay aren’t significantly better than Dhawan’s in Tests outside Asia: 1187 runs at 33.91. However, Vijay did well in India’s previous two series outside Asia: he made 482 runs at 60.25 eight innings in Australia and 402 runs at 40.20 in ten innings in England.
1 Away Test venues at which India have played more matches than the 12 they have played at Port of Spain – they have played 17 Tests at Lord’s. India have played 12 Tests at three other venues – at the Oval, the MCG and Sabina Park in Jamaica.
