After his one-match ban, Shane Watson was back donning his baggy green cap – and this time around with the captain’s armband too! In the process, the Australian all-rounder became the first player in Test history to be appointed skipper for a match after facing a suspension in the previous one. Watson also became the 13th player to debut as captain against India in India.
Here are these and some other stats highlights from the first day of the Delhi Test:
This is the 32nd Test match at Delhi’s Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium.
The toss-winning captain has always elected to bat first at Delhi in Tests held here. However, they have managed to win only five games and lost 12.
MS Dhoni lost his fourth consecutive toss of the series. Among the players who have captained India in 20 or more Tests, MS Dhoni has the worst toss-winning percentage (38.29) – 18 toss wins in 47 Tests.
Shane Watson became 44th player to captain Australia in Test cricket. He is the third to make his captaincy debut against India, after Ray Lindwall and Bill Lawry.
Incidentally, Shane Watson became the first player to be suspended for one Test and made captain for the next.
Out of the 13 previous players who made their captaincy debut against India in India, only two have won a Test on captaincy debut. They are: Tony Lewis (England) and Clive Lloyd (West Indies).
Australia made five changes in their team from the one that played at Mohali. The last time Australia made five changes in two consecutive Tests of the same series was in 1977-78 at Adelaide – also against India!
Ed Cowan was dismissed by R Ashwin for the fourth time in the series. Cowan’s performance against Ashwin in the series: Balls - 214, Runs - 71, Dismissals - 4, Avg - 17.75, RPO - 1.99.
R Ashwin has now taken 26 wickets in the series. The last Indian bowler to take 25-plus wickets in a series was Anil Kumble, who took 27 wickets also against Australia in 2004-05.
