Enjoying home domination – England’s fantastic home record in Tests

In the last 5-6 years, England have risen as a tough team to beat in their own backyard despite the conditions being heavily bowling-friendly. The presence of James Anderson and Stuart Broad has benefited England with the duo standing up and delivering on most occasions. The visiting teams have managed to sneak a Test victory, yet winning a Test series in England remains a distant dream.

The series against Pakistan that concluded on Tuesday was only the 2nd multi-match Test series for England since 2015 where they did not lose a match. The other such series was against Sri Lanka in 2015 where the English team went 2-0 up in the 3-match series prior to the final game which ended in a draw. The ace pace-duo and the likes of Ben Stokes and Joe Root ensured England bouncing back strongly to ensure the visiting teams not winning a series in this period.

Since the beginning of 2015, England have won as many as 28 Tests which are the most by any side. However, they have been benefited by playing about ten home matches more than any other team. In terms of win-loss ratio, the English team is well behind India’s 22, New Zealand’s 5.33 and Australia’s 5.00. But India and England are the only home team to now have lost a Test series in their backyard since the beginning of 2015.

Australia suffered series defeats against South Africa (2016) and India (2018) at home during this period while the Proteas (2016) and the Aussies (2017) got the better of the Blackcaps. South Africa had series defeats against England (2015, 2020) and also lost a 2-match series in the hands of a young Sri Lankan team (2019). The Indian team, on the other hand, has lost a grand total of one Test match at home in this period and won each and every Test series they played at home in this period.

(Stats as on August 26, 2020)