2024: Worst time to be Australian batter? A look at shocking statistics

Adelaide [Australia], December 4 (ANI): As Australians take to the field for the pink-ball, day-night Test at Adelaide Oval against India, all eyes will be on its batting line-up spearheaded by Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne which has struggled to live up to their gigantic standard for the majority of the year.
The Adelaide Test, starting on December 6, sees India entering with both a mental and physical edge, following a dominant 295-run win in the first Test at Perth, led by Jasprit Bumrah's bowling and captaincy.
However, the visitors will also aim to exorcise the memories of the infamous 2020 Adelaide pink-ball Test, where they were dismissed for their lowest Test score of 36 runs. On that occasion, Pat Cummins (4/21) and Josh Hazlewood (5/8) dismantled the Indian batting line-up, giving Australia a straightforward target of 90 runs to chase.
Visitors have their past demons to exorcise and look red-hot after a brilliant outing in Perth except the 150 all-out in the first innings. The great, old, much talked about 'Aussie mentality' has faced a lot of dents over this year and numbers do tell a story.
Painting an extremely sorry and pessimistic picture of Australian batting, it is not the headlining acts like Smith, Khawaja, Labuschagne and Travis Head, but wicketkeeper-batter Alex Carey who is the only one averaging above 30 in Tests this year for Australia, having made 302 runs in six Tests, 10 innings at an average of 33.55, with two half-centuries and best score of 98*, as per ESPNCricinfo.
Among all teams to have played at least six Tests this year, Australia has the third-worst batting average of the collective top seven batters at 29.52, with Bangladesh and West Indies being worse with 24.45 and 23.71. Sri Lanka (39.30) tops the list here while India is at third with average of 36.39.
Australian batters are having a hard time converting their promising starts and half-centuries into big centuries. The innings per hundred ratio of the team's top seven sits at 38.55 this year, with Bangladesh (44.67) and West Indies (67) again performing much worse. Sri Lanka (10.09 innings per hundred, first position) and India (12.91 innings per hundred, third spot) outclass Australia by miles.
In another sign that batting has failed to click as a collective, they are yet to score 400 runs as a team in an innings this year, with 383 against New Zealand at Wellington their top score for this year. The last time they did not register a 400-run total in a calendar year was 1990.
Notably, Australia has five batters in their top seven who have played 10 or more innings but are yet to touch the average of 30. This includes Head (29.80), Khawaja (26.00), Mitchell Marsh (26.30), Smith (25.55) and Labuschagne (24.50). When combined, they have 56 innings in total out of which only one has been converted into a century and there have been eight fifties.
The batting averages of notable Aussie stars have witnessed a severe drop-off since January 2023 to now. Khawaja has gone from 45.59 to 45.14, Labuschagne has gone from 59.05 to 48.45, Smith has dropped from an imperious 60.58 to 56.40, Head from 44.69 to 41.96 and Carey from 39.56 to 31.72. Only Marsh has managed to improve his average from 25.2 to 30.33.
Will Aussie batters make a comeback during the Adelaide Test? Only time will tell.
India are currently 1-0 up in the BGT series following their record-shattering 295-run victory in Perth. The second Test will be played in a day-night format in Adelaide, beginning from Friday.
Australia squad (for second Test): Pat Cummins (C), Scott Boland, Alex Carey (WK), Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Nathan McSweeney, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster.
India squad: Rohit Sharma (C), Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Devdutt Padikkal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar.
Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed, Yash Dayal. (ANI)