The second leg of Australia’s international summer is all in readiness of beginning from tomorrow with the first Test match of the season against West Indies set to be played in Perth. With the first leg finishing with ICC T20 World Cup 2022 earlier this month, it was pretty understandable why all the international cricket played in its build-up was in the limited-overs formats.
Advertisement
Talking of second legs, West Indies will also kick-start the same down under after a disastrous T20 World Cup campaign. Barring a handful of names, most of their Test cricketers weren’t part of the world event which had come to an end for them within the first week itself.
Set to be the first Test match between these two teams in almost seven years, it is safe to term the hosts as the favourites. Australia, who whitewashed England in an ODI series after failing to defend their T20 World Cup title, are way better a Test team at home on paper. Hence, it will require a gargantuan effort on the part of the West Indies to challenge the Aussies in these two imminent Test matches.
While Australia announced their “straightforward” Playing XI on the eve of the match, West Indies will do the same at the toss at the Optus Stadium on Wednesday.
AUS vs WI head to head records in Test cricket
Total number of matches played: 116
Matches won by AUS: 58
Matches won by WI: 32
Matches played at Perth Stadium: 0 (AUS 0, WI 0)
Matches played in Australia: 66 (AUS 37, WI 18)
AUS average run rate against WI: 2.94
WI average run rate against AUS: 3.02
Most runs for AUS: 497 (Steven Smith)
Most runs for WI: 329 (Kraigg Brathwaite)
Most wickets for AUS: 34 (Nathan Lyon)
Most wickets for WI: 28 (Kemar Roach)
Most catches for AUS: 8 (David Warner)
Most catches for WI: 4 (Kraigg Brathwaite)
NOTE: Only players part of current squads have been considered above (most runs, wickets and catches).
