5 captains with most overseas Test wins
Test cricket, the ultimate form of the game as considered by many, is the most challenging form of the game too. And the challenge grows more difficult when a team plays overseas in alien conditions which generally favour the home side. The toughest task a captain can get in Test cricket is winning overseas. Overseas wins are considered to be of ultimate importance, so much so that a captain's calibre is generally measured in terms of his overseas records.
The trend of the home team winning series after series is not something new in Test cricket. This has always been the case, except for brief periods in the 80s when West Indies were deadly and in the 2000s when the Aussies were invincibles. The ratio of overseas wins has fallen, drastically this decade, but the year 2018 saw some great turnarounds. Series wins by New Zealand in UAE, England in Sri Lanka and India in Australia were highlights of the year.
Over the years, visiting sides have been seen losing from winnable positions, crumbling under pressure in alien conditions. However, there have been teams and skippers who have fought against all odds and came out victorious on foreign soil. Here we look at five captains with most overseas Test wins.
5. Allan Border (13)
The Aussie dominance that was seen in the 90s and 2000s had its roots from the Allan Border era of the late 80s. The second batsman to reach 10000 Test runs, Border was the backbone of the Aussie middle-order. He was someone who never backed away from taking gambles to win games and led from the front with his batting.
Under Border, Australia won 13 and lost 11 from a total of 42 overseas Tests. However there were not many series wins under Border to show for except for the Ashes, which he won twice (4-0 in 1989 and 4-1 in 1993). Though the numbers are not overly impressive, the fact that he led the turnaround of Aussie cricket makes his record creditworthy.