3 Test legends who struggled in India

One of the many beauties of Test cricket is that it demands different skill-sets to succeed in varying conditions, especially for a batsman.

English conditions, as we saw throughout the India tour of England, challenges a batsman's ability to counter movement aided by both the pitch and overhead conditions, Australia challenges batsman to counter fast and bouncy pitches, while South Africa and New Zealand challenge a batsman's ability to counter all of seam, swing, and bounce.

While the fast bowlers pose threats to the batsman in the aforementioned countries, the focus shifts to the spinners as we move to the sub-continent. Likewise, for bowlers, it is never easy to adjust to varying conditions, as different conditions require different lengths to bowl to constantly challenge the batsman.

Over the years, we have seen overseas spinners struggle in spin-friendly conditions of India and likewise for the sub-continent bowlers when they travel to the SENA countries.

Today, in this article, we will have a look at 3 Test legends who failed in India:-

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#3 Muttiah Muralitharan

Sehwag dominated Murali in the 2009 series.

Record in India: Matches: 11 Wickets: 40 BBI: 7-100 Avg: 45.45 5-wicket-haul: 2

The most successful Test bowler in the history of the game; a man who could spin a bowl many a mile even on glass, the great Muttiah Muralitharan bamboozled batsmen all over the world with his truckload of tricks during the course of his 18-year-old illustrious career.

Seldom did Murali struggle like he did in India. Murali's struggle in India mirrored Sri Lanka's woes against their sub-continental neighbours, as their biggest match-winner's average zoomed to 43.11, a steep slide from his career average: a staggering 22.72.

Muralitharan's first taste of the Indian conditions came in 1994. In three matches, the off-spinner took 12 wickets at an average of 35.00. Things headed south three years later, as Murali was put to the sword by the Indian batsmen. In two matches, the legendary off-spinner could manage barely two scalps at a catastrophic average of 103.66.

His best performance came in the 2005 tour where he claimed 16 wickets in six innings at an average of 31.00 (his highest in India), before he came up against a rampaging Virender Sehwag four years later in 2009 to round-off his ordeal in India with nine wickets in three games at 65.66.

#2 Shane Warne

One of the greatest match-winner struggled to get going in India

Record in India: Matches: 9 Wickets: 34 BBI: 6-125 Avg: 43.11 5-wicket-haul: 1

If you think of the 90s, a plethora of iconic tussles- Atherton-Donald, Wasim-Lara, Waugh-Ambrose, Lara-McGrath (to name a few) come to mind; the bowler charging in, the batsman not giving an inch. The Tendulkar-Warne rivalry sits at the absolute pantheon of all the iconic tussles during that period of time.

The 1998 Border-Gavaskar Trophy was built around the Tendulkar-Warne rivalry. Warne drew first blood when he got Tendulkar slashing outside off to hole out at slip in the first innings at Chennai. But, unfortunately, it would turn out to be one of the few bright moments for the champion leg-spinner on Indian shores.

While Tendulkar completely dominated him in the 1998 series, three years later, VVS Laxman was coming down the track and driving him between long-on and deep midwicket with ease.

Warne finally got it right to an extent in Australia's historic triumph in 2004. At an average of 30.07, Warne claimed 14 wickets in the three-match series, giving some respectability to his beleaguered numbers in India.

#1 Ricky Ponting

Ponting averaged 3.4 in the 2001 series,

Record in India: Matches: 14 Runs: 662 Avg: 26.48 100s: 1 HS: 123

The second highest run-getter in Test cricket and the greatest Australian batsman after Don Bradman, Ricky Ponting dominated bowling attacks across different conditions.

Ponting had a particular liking towards the Indians. In 15 matches against India Down Under, the former Australian captain scored a ridiculous 1893 runs at a staggering average of 86.04.

However, the tables turned considerably whenever Ponting toured India. His lowest point as a Test batsman came in the famous 2001 series where he couldn't buy a run. In three matches Ponting scored 17 runs at a damming average of 3.40.

"My arch nemesis when I was playing against India was Harbhajan Singh,” Ponting said in 2016. “I still get nightmares about him."

He finally got it right in his sixth tour of India when in 2010 he scored 224 runs in two matches at 56.00.

One of the key reasons for Ponting's failures in India was because of Harbhajan Singh. The Indian off-spinner had the wood over his Aussie counterpart throughout his career. Harbhajan snared Ponting on ten occasions in 14 encounters- the most by any bowler against Ponting.

In 14 matches spanning across six tours, Ponting scrapped 662 runs at an average of 26.48: a big let down from his career average of 51.85.