The last eight months have been particularly memorable for teams in one-day internationals. Since the World Cup, Bangladesh and England have both made good use of home conditions to overcome opponents far more fancied than themselves: after an impressive World Cup campaign, Bangladesh thrashed Pakistan 3-0 and India 2-1, while England overcame New Zealand 3-2. Two out of four World Cup semi-finalists played away series, and lost against opponents they were expected to beat.Home advantage has always counted for a bit in cricket, but never as much as it has in one-day internationals in the last eight months. The numbers are quite incredible: in 75 matches, home teams have won 61 and lost only ten, a win-loss ratio of 6.1.
This period began with India's 5-0 whitewash of Sri Lanka in November last year, and then continued with Australia's 4-1 defeat of South Africa, and Bangladesh's 5-0 drubbing of Zimbabwe. In the lead-up to the World Cup, Australia won four games without losing any in the tri-series against India and England, while South Africa beat West Indies 4-1. In the World Cup itself, the two dominant teams were the ones which hosted the tournament: New Zealand won eight out of eight at home, while Australia, the eventual champions, won seven out of seven. (One match, against Bangladesh, was washed out, while their only defeat was in New Zealand.) Since the World Cup, Bangladesh and England have kept the flag flying for the home teams, while Pakistan have chipped in too, with a 2-0 win in a historic home series against Zimbabwe. During these eight months, Australia have a 15-1 win-loss record at home, Bangladesh 10-1, and New Zealand 14-2. (Click here for the team-wise stats in home ODIs in the last eight months.)
All those results add up to complete home dominance over the last eight months. The table below looks at year-wise ODI home results over the last decade, and never has the skew been as prominent as it is now. In fact, between January and October 2014, home teams won fewer ODIs than they lost. In all the other years since 2005, the win-loss ratio for home teams has never exceeded 1.68 (69-41) in 2010.
In 2015 so far, the ODI win-loss ratio for home teams is 6.5 (39 wins, six losses), which is by far the best in any calendar year. The next-best, with a 20-match cut-off, is 1989 ratio of 2.75 (32-22). When grouping the numbers by decade, though, the 2010s is only marginally ahead of the 1990s, suggesting this is just a one-off occurrence. For the moment, the home teams are surely not complaining.
| Year | Mat | Won | Lost | W/L | Bat Ave | Run Rate | Bowl Ave | Econ Rate |
| Nov 2014 Onwards | 75 | 61 | 10 | 6.10 | 44.42 | 6.21 | 27.15 | 5.31 |
| Jan-Oct 2014 | 67 | 28 | 36 | 0.78 | 29.16 | 5.26 | 32.08 | 5.27 |
| Year 2013 | 107 | 51 | 46 | 1.11 | 32.16 | 5.19 | 30.40 | 5.19 |
| Year 2012 | 72 | 41 | 26 | 1.58 | 33.32 | 5.17 | 27.52 | 4.87 |
| Year 2011 | 113 | 61 | 46 | 1.33 | 32.06 | 5.16 | 29.47 | 5.01 |
| Year 2010 | 112 | 69 | 41 | 1.68 | 33.83 | 5.20 | 27.42 | 4.84 |
| Year 2009 | 119 | 50 | 63 | 0.79 | 30.89 | 5.22 | 31.70 | 5.21 |
| Year 2008 | 105 | 60 | 36 | 1.67 | 31.29 | 5.02 | 25.74 | 4.66 |
| Year 2007 | 118 | 65 | 47 | 1.38 | 32.17 | 5.13 | 29.04 | 4.89 |
| Year 2006 | 118 | 67 | 47 | 1.43 | 31.30 | 5.03 | 28.72 | 4.73 |
Bangladesh's dynamic debutants
More than any other team, Bangladesh seem to be the side whose ODI bowlers are churning out outstanding performances in their debut game. Mustafizur Rahman's 5 for 50 was even more special as it helped win a crucial game against India - and for good measure he followed that with6 for 43 in his next game - but in the recent past there have been other strong debut displays as well. Almost exactly a year before Mustafizur's debut, Taskin Ahmed started his ODI career with a haul of 5 for 28 against India; in December last year, Taijul Islam, the left-arm spinner, took 4 for 11 on debut against Zimbabwe; in 2012, Sohag Gazi, the offspinner, began his ODI career with a debut haul of 4 for 29; Rubel Hossain's debut ODI brought him similarly rich rewards - 4 for 33against Sri Lanka.
Since the beginning of 2004, Bangladesh's debutant bowlers have taken 42 wickets at an average of 21.04, and an economy rate of 4.49; with a 25-wicket cut-off, only South Africa's debutant bowlers have a better average (19.70), while the economy rate for Bangladesh is better than that of any other team. Also, five Bangladesh bowlers have taken four or more wickets on debut during this period, which is more than all other sides.
South Africa's best during this period have been Vernon Philander, Imran Tahir, Marchant de Lange and Lonwabo Tsotsobe, who've all started their ODI careers with four-wicket hauls in overseas games. West Indies bowlers have started off well too, with four bowlers taking three or more wickets on debut.
The team with the poorest debut bowling average during this period, though, is India - they're the only team to concede more than 40 runs per wicket. Four of their bowlers conceded 50 or more runs without taking a wicket on debut during this period: Praveen Kumar, Irfan Pathan, Abhimanyu Mithun and Karn Sharma. On the other hand, only three - Varun Aaron, Piyush Chawla and Rahul Sharma - took three on debut. (Click here for the full list of Indian bowlers' debut performances.)
There doesn't seem to be any meaningful correlation between debut performances and long-term results. Bangladesh will be hoping that changes with their current set.
| Team | Mat | Wkts | Average | Econ | 4+ Wkts |
| South Africa | 30 | 37 | 19.70 | 4.67 | 4 |
| Bangladesh | 36 | 42 | 21.04 | 4.49 | 5 |
| West Indies | 42 | 33 | 25.36 | 4.51 | 1 |
| England | 45 | 43 | 26.27 | 4.72 | 1 |
| Pakistan | 40 | 37 | 30.35 | 4.79 | 0 |
| Sri Lanka | 40 | 30 | 30.90 | 5.11 | 0 |
| Zimbabwe | 38 | 40 | 31.65 | 5.42 | 1 |
| Australia | 47 | 47 | 33.17 | 5.05 | 1 |
| New Zealand | 43 | 33 | 34.78 | 5.57 | 2 |
| Canada | 30 | 29 | 39.06 | 5.40 | 1 |
| India | 42 | 31 | 42.12 | 5.10 | 0 |
S Rajesh is stats editor of ESPNcricinfo. Follow him on Twitter
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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- FARUQUE8810 ON JUNE 29, 2015, 6:18 GMTI guess downward trend is harsh. But I don't see a upward trend in India either. It seems more or less the same. I don't expect them to do much better then being in top 4 in ICC 2017, at max in the top 2. There does not seem to be much things to be excited about the Indian team. Also Dhoni is pretty old to and personally one of the top Indian players and when he retires the team will be hurt more. India seems same old with nothing new to excite. I am still not too sure if BD is #2 in Asia, most likely they are but they still have to prove that they are better then Sri Lanka. One problem is that Sri Lanka plays best against BD so BD has to work hard. BD is doing good now but they have to continue this for a while or better before we can safely say they are #2 in Asia or may even become #1 depending on how India plays.
- KANDUKOORI ON JUNE 29, 2015, 4:17 GMT@FARUQUE8810 I don't agree with you that India is on down trend actually recovering from loosing legends like Sachin, Sehwag, Zaheer, Yuvraj,and good players like Gambhir, Harbhajan who won the world cup 2011 for india. with new players India won the CT 2013, reached the finals of T20 world cup finals, 2015 world cup semifinals without dropping a game is a good achievement but yes the team lacked consistence in the other matches. whereas Bangladesh is definitely improving and i place them second in Asia after India as Sri Lanka is weakened considerable with the retirement of Sanga and Mahela.
- FARUQUE8810 ON JUNE 29, 2015, 2:57 GMTGuys stop with the hate. And remember this is the best ever for BD. In the history of BD cricket this is our high point and we are looking to go higher and have upward trend. This is our most exciting point since we were awarded Test status. However with India, there high point where 1983 and 2011 when they won WC. Their goal is higher. If they don't win a championship its considered a failure and also in terms of current cricket India is on a downward trend and as a result not really a exciting time for them.
- KANDUKOORI ON JUNE 28, 2015, 12:12 GMTI know the difference between Indian and Bangladesh fans, Indian. fans don't know that India is 2 ranked team and they don't know how to boast about it, whereas Bangladesh fans know there team is ranked 7 and they don't know that ranking can't be boasted about and i got the logic in your boasting answer buddy grow up bangla fan. minnows mentality.
- @kandukoori, you know what's the difference between Indian fans and Bengali fans ? The difference is, we know that we don't know; but it seems you even don't know that you don't know. Oil your own machine and try to win abroad consistently and then look at others.
- KESHAB ON JUNE 28, 2015, 7:21 GMTBangladesh has developed a lot & there is no doubt about this, they have performed reasonably well in world cup & at home their record in last few month are unanimous.But it will be interesting to see them performing the same in abroad, we have to wait for that but till then Bangladesh can fly in the air as they outplayed both Pakistan, India in ODI with good all round performance.
- KANDUKOORI ON JUNE 28, 2015, 5:03 GMTSHAMIM_KHAN_AT_KAS I never said India is full of world class players, i consider only Virat and Dhoni are world class and the rest are up coming stars. But India is lucky that it got match winners in Dhawan, Rohit,Raina and Ashwin and i congratulated Bangla team for their victory,but if you take last one year record its still in favour of India 4-2.Bangladesh won the recent series because of Mustafizurs novelty and he was sorted out by 3 ODI.yes your are on right track, but a long way to go to called a champion team.Good Luck.
- SHAMIM_KHAN_AT_KSA ON JUNE 28, 2015, 2:49 GMT@kandukoori Bangladesh is newer than others . We need to play more home and abroad . We emerged strong amid a BIG THREE theory . The way Bangladesh are playing right now , we are in the right track .BTW If our players can beat your world class why don't you recognize it ?
- FARUQUE8810 ON JUNE 27, 2015, 18:58 GMTYes I know about those records Kandukoori. Like I said Sakib has better home records because the subcontinent pitch is different then the other continents. In fact he has higher batting average in India and Pakistan then BD. Only weird thing is that he has horrible average in Sri Lanka, don't know why. He also has better average in West Indies, Zimbabwe and Ireland. He also has good average in SA. His worst average in terms of continent is Oceania which you can attribute to the opposition rather then the ground and best is Americas because of all the match against WI. Only thing you can blame Shakib for is that he has low average in Europe but then again he only played 6 games in Europe.
- KANDUKOORI ON JUNE 27, 2015, 14:31 GMTShakibs overall record 153 matches 4334 runs avg.35.23, bowling 198 wickets avg.28.32 In Bangladesh-81 matches 2287 runs avg.36.88, bowling 120 wickets avg.23.33 neutral venues 21 matches runs 701 avg.46.73, bowling 22 wickets avg.35.90 home of opposition-51 matches runs 1346 avg.29.26, bowling 56 wickets avg.36.05 against Australia-7 matches 147 runs avg.21.00, bowling 5 wickets avg.48.00 against S.Africa - 7 matches 177 runs avg.25.28, bowling 7 wickets avg.44,85 ( TO BE CONT)
