The Kirsten Era: In Numbers
by Devanshu Mehta
The Duncan Fletcher era is upon us. The Gary Kirsten era in Indian cricket has been quite something to watch. Especially when coupled with Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Here are some highlights, as I’ve been combing through the statistics of the past few years:
Test record:
- India played 33 tests under Kirsten, won 16, lost 6, drawn 11.
- In the previous 3 years, India won 11, lost 6 drawn 13.
- Basically, India learned how to convert potential draws to wins. What Australia learned under Steve Waugh.
- At home: 10 wins, 2 losses, 7 draws. Away: 6 wins, 4 losses, 4 draws.
- Sri Lanka and South Africa are the only test teams to have beaten India in the Kirsten era.
- Only 1 out of 12 series was lost (Sri Lanka in ’08). No test series have been lost under Dhoni.
- In the previous 3 years, 3 out of 11 series were lost.
One Day record:
- India played 93 ODIs under Kirsten, won 59, lost 29 and tied 1.
- In the previous 3 years, India won 48 and lost 42. The win percentage has gone up dramatically.
- India won 14 out of 21 ODI series, including the World Cup.
- Home: 24 wins, 7 losses, 1 tied. Away: 35 wins, 22 losses.
- In the previous 3 years, India lost more away ODIs than they won. This is where their improvement has been most obvious.
In a way, this is merely a continuation of the 21st century revolution.
Related Articles
- Fletcher named as new coach of India (guardian.co.uk)
Deep Backward Point 
Thanks for doing this; I often get too impatient to carefully come through statistics to back my hunches. No doubt, India have been very, very impressive in the last few years — I like that Test series win rate, especially — but the big concern for me remains victories in South Africa and Australia. To do that will require better fast bowlers (and maybe some replacements for Laxman or Dravid).
Until that happens, it’s not clear to me the post-Australia era will move past its multipolar moment (to borrow from the I.R. field).