Led by opener KL Rahul’s sixth fifty-plus score in the series and stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane’s quick-fire knock, India beat Australia by 8 wickets to win the fourth and final Test match played in Dharamsala on Tuesday.
Here are the statistical analysis at the end of the four-match series between India and Australia.
# India became the third nation to win Test series against all their opponents at the same point of time. Australia had recorded the distinction in 2004-05 and 2006-07 and South Africa in 2012-13.
# With their victory in the Dharamsala Test by eight wickets, India have achieved a rare distinction of winning four consecutive Test series vs Australia in India since 2008.
# India's previous best series record vs Australia on India soil was -- three in successive series between 1996 and 2001 - 1-0 (one-off Test) in 1996-97; 2-1 in 1997-98 and 2-1 in 2000-01.
# India have won a Test rubber four times after losing the very first Test of the series -- vs Australia in 2000-01 and 2016-17; vs England in 1972-73 and vs Sri Lanka in 2015.
# For the first time, India have won seven consecutive Test series -- from 2015 till date.
# Jadeja's second MOM award against Australia is his fifth in Tests. For the first time, Jadeja has been adjudged the Man of the series.
# Cheteshwar Pujara posted his first duck in Tests on Indian soil -- his third overall.
# Lokesh Rahul has posted five consecutive half centuries vs Australia in Tests. The sequence of scores being -- 90 & 51 at Bengaluru; 67 at Ranchi and 60 & 51 not out at Dharamsala.
# Rahul became the sixth batsman to record this distinction vs Australia, joining England's Peter May, John Edrich & Graham Gooch, India's Gundappa Viswanath & VVS Laxman.
# Only two players have recorded more than six fifty-plus innings (registered by Rahul) in a four-Test series -- England's Patsy Hendren (7 vs West Indies in 1929-30) and India's Sunil Gavaskar (7 vs West Indies in 1970-71).
# Steven Smith's performance in a losing cause in Tests has been mediocre despite his hundred in the Dharamsala Test. He aggregated 1295 (ave.32.37) in 21 Tests in a losing cause.
# Besides his century in the Dharamsala Test, his only other century in a losing cause being 119 vs Sri Lanka at Colombo, SSC in 2016
# Ajinkya Rahane has batted quite aggressively while posting an unbeaten 38 off 27 balls at a strike rate of 140.74 -- his best ever in an innings.
# Rahane's impressive strike rate is only the second best by an Indian batsman in an innings of 35 or more in the fourth innings behind Sanjeev Sharma's outstanding 146.15 when making 38 off 26 balls vs England at Lord's in 1990
# The win at Dharamsala is India's 10th out of 13 played in the 2016-17 season (two drawn and one loss) -- their highest tally in a season.
# The tally is the joint-second most by a team in a season in Tests. Australia's outstanding record of 11 wins out of the 12 played during the 2005-06 season (one drawn) is without parallel while in the 1999-00 season they had won all 10.
