In the red ball matches, team India hasn't had great success. India has won just two series this year. One each against Bangladesh recently and against Sri Lanka at home when the Lankan Tigers toured India in early 2022.
The majority of the focus was on the T20 International format because of the T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia.
But India didn’t win that either as we all know that the T20I champions England thrashed India by ten wickets in the semi-final match of that ICC mega event Down Under.
In the upcoming season of 2023, India is scheduled to play four-match series in the red ball format against the Aussies. This series is important especially for India as they need to qualify for the WTC 2023 finals.
India needs to win the four-match Test series by a margin of 3-0 or 3-1. They can't afford to lose the series because that will hamper their chance for the final qualification of the ICC test event.
The series loss might not do any wrong for Australia as they are first in the WTC Rankings. The Aussies have been in great form in the red-ball matches and they also win the series against South Africa.
So before the start of the four-match Test series between India Vs Australia and the new year of 2023, today we shall name the highest run-getters and wicket-takers for India in the red ball format.
In 2022, India has played seven Test matches this year, they have won four of them and lost three red ball matches in 2022.
The wicket-keeper batter of the Indian cricket team, Rishabh Pant has the most runs in the red ball format. As a batter, Pant has been very excellent in red-ball cricket.
He is the only Indian keeper to smash a ton in South Africa, England and Australia. Rishabh has scored 680 runs in seven matches and 12 innings with an average of 61.81 and a strike rate of 90.90. Pant has slammed four fifties and two centuries this year.
The biggest positive of the Team in all three formats has been Shreyas Iyer. But still, he hasn't been included in the shortest format despite his great run in ODIs and Test matches.
Iyer is also the highest run-getter for India in the one-day international format and in Test matches also, he is been placed as the second-highest run-scorer in 2022.
Iyer has played five matches and eight innings. He has scored 422 runs with four half-centuries this year. He has an average of 60.28 and a strike rate of 68.84.
The test specialist of the men in blue side, Cheteshwar Pujara has also been featured in this list. Pujara, the number three batter for the Indian cricket team has the third-highest runs for India in the red ball format.
He has scored 409 runs from five matches and ten innings with a century which came after three long years. Cheteshwar had an average of 45.44 and a strike rate of 48.51 in 2022.
The Indian pace star bowler, Jasprit Bumrah is currently injured and that is why he didn't play more red ball in 2022. He took 22 scalps in five Test matches and ten innings with an average of 20.31, an economy rate of 2.31 and a strike rate of 41.3.
Boom Boom Bumrah has picked up two five-wicket hauls and his best match figures were five for 24 runs and his best innings figures were eight for 47 runs.
The ace spin-bowling all-rounder, Ravichandran Aswin has been brilliant in the red ball format. He has stepped up as a batter as well in the absence of Ravindra Jadeja. In 2022, Ash played six Tests and 12 innings.
In those, he has picked up 20 wickets with the red ball with an average of 27.70, an economy rate of 2.88 and a strike rate of 57.7. Ashwin also scored 270 runs with the bat in ten Test innings.
Both are all-rounders for India in all three formats and they are paired with 11 wickets each in 2022. Shardul Thakur is the pace-bowling all-rounder while Axar Patel is the spin-bowling all-rounder.
Patel is a like-for-like replacement for Ravindra Jadeja, who has been injured. Both these players got three matches and six innings each and they picked up the same number of wickets this year in 2022.
