Australia in ODIs in India - Still a better love story than Twilight!

Australia may have had their share of struggles while playing Test cricket in India, but they have surprisingly mastered conditions completely alien to them in the ODI format. The team has perennially been the best out of all teams in winning in India in particular. Ricky Ponting for example, has the record of scoring the most number of runs in India by any foreign batsman. However, out of approximately 2300 runs of his, 1700 of those have been in ODIs!

It all started from the 1987 World Cup, in which most of the matches were played in India as Allan Border’s young and gritty Australian side defeated arch-rivals England in the final in Kolkata.

Steve Waugh then, with his mental disintegration tactics and proactive captaincy led Australia to a triangular series win in 1998 (defeating hosts India in the final) and a 3-2 series win in 5 matches in 2001 (winning the last 2 ODIs). Both of these results came coincidentally after Australia lost the Test series, 2-1 on both the occasions!

Inspired by Waugh was his successor Ponting, who happens to be the most successful Australian ODI captain in India. In November 2003, the world champions defeated India in a triangular series final in Kolkata. Three years later and he was lifting the ICC Champions Trophy for the first time ever with his teammates in Mumbai, defeating West Indies in the final.

Right after India won the World T20 2007, they played Australia in a 7 match series entering as the favourites. Yet, the Aussies showed why there were still the world champions in 50 over cricket with a 4-2 win in 7 matches. However, Ponting faced an uphill battle two years later when he had to lead a team depleted of half the players flying back home due to injuries.

But with the help of ‘rookie’ talents performing exceptionally well in one match or the other, Ponting was immensely praised for using his experience well to make them play as a unit in high pressure situations and win against a much stronger Indian team led by MS Dhoni, 4-2 (once again!) in a 7 match series.

The 2011 World Cup quarterfinal loss was just one bad day in the office for Australia which was the end of an era. India now seem to have the confidence and ammunition to win more against Australia in ODIs and that too at home for the first time in two decades.

But George Bailey and co. can take inspiration from history and become the No.1 ODI team in the world again in order to start their run up to the 2015 World Cup at home in style.