Centuries in both innings, for and against India.

“YJ” Bairstow became the latest to score a century in each innings against India. Bradman was the first to do this:

This the only “double” by Bradman.

Also note the 300 +100 by Gooch. Strauss is the only other one to score centuries in both innings for England against India.

Gooch also holds the record for the most runs in a Test.

Bradman and Gooch were both captaining their sides.

Those who scored a century in both innings for India:

Gavaskar did it thrice (twice against WI) and Dravid twice. Kohli, Rahane and RG Sharma are the most recent ones. Gavaskar (Dec 1978) and Kohli were captaining their sides.

When Hazare made his double against Bradman’s team, it was the first time he had crossed 50.

Gavaskar’s 344 remains the most runs in a match by an Indian batsman. VVS Laxman’s 340 (59 + 281) is next.

Differences between home and away batting averages

A common topic of discussion among cricket’s number-crunchers is the difference between home and away batting averages.

Here, we consider the differences for the 534 players who have batted in at least 20 innings both in home and away/neutral Tests.

The full list of Home average-Away/Neutral average can be seen in this spreadsheet.

Home-away main display

This is for Tests up to Oct 25, 2019. The 2005 Test involving the ICC XI is not included.

However, you may find it simpler to look at the top 40, whose home average has the greatest positive difference  with the away/neutral average. Or those who derive the greatest advantage from home conditions.

Note that some prominent players such as RG Sharma do not feature here as they have not completed 20 innings in one of the two categories.

Many of the current Pakistani players are not here because they have played few or no Tests at home.

The top positions are the unlikely trio of VS Hazare, Kamran Akmal and Mominul Haque-all from the Asian teams. Next come Rowe and Walcott from the West Indies. Warner, Khawaja and Clarke are the highest among Australians, Compton and May from the English, HP Tillakratne from Sri Lanka, HW Taylor from South Africa, McCullum from New Zealand and GJ Whittall from Zimbabwe.

We now go to the other extreme, those who have the greatest negative difference, or those who derive the strongest advantage from away and neutral conditions.

Unlike in the first table, the first few positions are from a wider variety of teams.

BC Broad (Eng) has the only such difference less than -30. While he had a reasonable career as a batsman, his bowler son Stuart Broad is better known.

Then other leaders from their teams are DM Bravo (WI), S Wettimuny (SL), M Amarnath (Ind), PA Strang (Zim), WR Endean (SA), JW Burke (Aus), JR Reid (NZ), Saleem Yousuf (Pak). Perhaps it is understandable that there is no one from Bangladesh in the top 40. The best from BD is Javed Omar (102nd with -2.83).

The median difference among the 534 players is 3.14, matched by RJ Shastri and GG Arnold. That might imply that most batsmen would be expected to average 3 runs more at home than away/neutral.

Those closest to a zero difference (whose batting averages are practically the same home and away) are Waqar Younis (-0.04) along with HM Amla (0.09 ) and Intikhab Alam (-0.10)

In case you are wondering, DG Bradman is 457th out of 534, being one of those who did better away. His difference is 98.22-102.84 = -4.62.