The story of Tests between these countries is simply told:
Australia have won 5 of the 6 Tests against Bangladesh, 3 of them by an innings. But the last series was drawn 1-1. Bangladesh’s last venture was a 1-1 draw in Sri Lanka.
This series saw Bangladesh’s first Test victory against Australia, and they had a chance of winning the series.
With such a small sample, it is not worthwhile to look at the aggregates and averages. But we can look at innings and match performances.
Highest innings (100 and above):
The highest score here is by a tailender playing as a nightwatchman. It was his only Test century, which came in his last Test.
Lehmann, Steve Waugh and Warner scored 2 centuries. S Nafees is still the only BD player to score a century against Australia. Warner scored centuries in successive innings in this series.
Best innings bowling (including all cases of 5wi or better):
While MacGill still holds the overall record, Lyon has the three next best performances which were all recorded in the current series. Shakib also recorded two five-fors.
Best match bowling (8wm and above):
Lyon recorded the best match figures for this series with 13-154 in the second Test, besides 9-161 in the first. His 22 wickets is the second highest in a 2-Test series, surpassed only by Herath’s 23 vs Pakistan in 2014. Muralitharan has also taken 22 in 2 Tests. Shakib also recorded the best match figures for BD v Aus.
The best series bowling performances for those playing 2 Tests are given here:
Best innings fielding (3 dismissals):
The much-maligned Wade appears here.
Best match fielding (4 or more dismissals):
Gilchrist and Wade share the record, with Wade making 3 stumpings. Handscomb has the most (4) by a non-keeper.
All-round match performances (50 and 5wm):
Shakib Al Hasan is the only one to record this. It is in fact one of the best all-round performances in all Tests as he scored a fifty (coming close to a hundred) besides two five-fors. Relatively few all-rounders have achieved this:
A small series, but with more than its share of points of statistical interest.
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