Top 5 Indian batsmen with highest averages in overseas conditions
India stepped into the league of top-flight cricket when it made its Test debut way back in 1932. India thereby became the sixth nation to be awarded the Test nation status. Over the years, India has gone on to produce some of the greatest batsmen to grace the sport. Indian cricket was blessed to have batsmen who left a mark with their elegant stroke play and wristy shot making.
In the 50s and 60s, Vijay Hazare, Vijay Manjrekar and Polly Umrigar ranked among the best with the willow. In the 70s and 80s, ‘Little Master’ Sunil Gavaskar was considered the most technically correct opener of his era. The likes of Gundappa Vishwanath and Mohinder Amarnath were rated quite high among batsmen of their generation.
The mid-80s saw the rise of Dilip Vengsarkar and Mohammad Azharuddin as quality players. While ‘Master Blaster’ Sachin Tendulkar became the lynchpin of Indian batting for over two decades, Rahul Dravid was aptly tagged as India’s 'Mr. Dependable' in overseas conditions. The swashbuckling opener Virender Sehwag could plunder the best of attacks and VVS Laxman with his wristy strokeplay was a treat to watch.
In the last five years, Virat Kohli has cemented his spot among the best batsmen in the game while Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane and Shikhar Dhawan form part of a formidable batting lineup.
For long, most Indians have been considered prolific run scorers on their batting friendly tracks back home and only a select few have been able to showcase their pedigree in hostile bowling friendly conditions abroad.
Most Indians average over 45 on docile batting friendly Indian wickets but their average drastically dips when they tour abroad. However, there are a select few Indian batsmen who were equally comfortably at negotiating the hostile spells in Australia, South Africa and England and went to play some match-winning innings for team India.
Let us have a look at the batsmen who have been the most consistent run scorers for India in overseas conditions.
For my selection, I have taken only those batsmen who played at least 40 Tests and scored over 2000 Test runs. I have taken batting average and ability to score tons in overseas conditions as the main criteria for ranking my top 5 batsmen.
Notable Mentions
Indian Batsmen Overseas Test Records (2000 Plus Runs)
VVS Laxman
Matches 77 Runs 5014 Avg 42.49 100s 9 50s 32
Sourav Ganguly
Matches 63 Runs 4032 Avg 41.56 100s 8 50s 22
Mohammad Azharuddin
Matches 53 Runs 2803 Avg 36.40 100s 9 50s 10
GR Viswanath
Matches 43 Runs 2578 Avg 36.30 100s 4 50s 20