Five best batsmen against India in Test cricket

The retirement of Alastair Cook marks the end of the fabulous career of one of Test cricket's finest openers, and it is rather fitting that his last series is being played against India, for that is the team he made a hundred on debut against and has tormented time and time again.

Right from his debut hundred in Nagpur, to his fantastic showing in 2012 that led England to a famous Test series victory in India, too many more stupendous showings against India, he has been one of the best performers against India.

Keeping that in mind, this article looks at five other Test batsmen who have tormented the Indian cricket team the most in recent years.

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#5 - Michael Clarke

It should come as no surprise that Michael Clarke, former Australian captain and one of Australia's best players of spin, performed extremely well in and against India over a span of ten years.

In India, Michael Clarke averaged a respectable 40.5 in 25 innings, notching up three hundreds and four half-centuries. His debut 151 in Bangalore against an attack comprising of two of India's finest spinners in Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh marked him out as someone who could perform well against India, and over the course of his career, he would go on to do just that.

Against India at home, he averaged a spectacular 76.92 and had a dream run against them in the series of 2012-13, where he scored a magnificent triple century (329*) and double. All in all, when India played Australia, they always had to especially look out for Clarke.

#4 - Younis Khan

It is a shame for Younis Khan that India and Pakistan did not play more Test matches over the course of his career, for, in the 9 Tests that he played against them, he made 1321 runs at an outstanding average of 88.05.

His spectacular 267 against India in Bangalore in 2005, regarded as the finest knock of his career by many, along with his 84* in the second innings of the same match helped Pakistan script one of their greatest wins ever and come from behind to equalize a series against India.

Further, on India's historic tour of Pakistan in 2006, he dominated by scoring 508 runs at an average of 101.6. Despite the fact that India would go on to only play one more series against Pakistan in Younis' career, his domination against them in these limited matches cemented him as one of the finest batsmen against India in contemporary times.

#3 - Jacques Kallis

Playing against India over the course of thirteen years, Jacques Kallis tormented them literally until his last Test match innings (in which he scored 115 against them). All in all, in 18 Test matches against India, he scored 1734 runs at an average of 69.36, a phenomenal record.

Moreover, in India, where most batsmen from overseas countries struggle, his record stands out: 760 runs at an average of 58.46. He played several notable, match-winning innings against India, whether it be his 201* at Centurion, his 173 in Nagpur which contributed to a famous South African win, or any of his other five hundreds against India.

Due to his stature as a great all-rounder and his phenomenal overall batting record, Kallis' performances against India are often looked past; however, these numbers clearly indicate that he was a tormentor for India with the bat in hand.

#2 - Matthew Hayden

While Matthew Hayden's numbers against India (1888 runs in 18 matches at an average of 59) definitely serve as some indicator of his good performances against them, they hardly tell the whole story. Right from his first tour of India in 2001, where he was almost undoubtedly Australia's finest player and a major reason for them almost clinching a victory, to his final series against them in 2008, he has dominated against India.

In his first series against them, which is now the famed 2001 India vs Australia series, visiting a country where Australian batsmen traditionally struggle against spin, he used the sweep extremely effectively and was able to counter India's spinners: he went on to score 549 runs in six innings at a mind-blowing average of 109.8.

While that was certainly his finest series against India - and perhaps the best performance by an overseas opener in Indian conditions - he performed well against them at other times as well and established himself as one of the best performers against India, particularly in Indian conditions.

#1 - Steven Smith

The former Australian captain, who is currently serving a one-year ban in wake of a ball-tampering scandal, has played 10 Test matches against India thus far and has already shown himself to be perhaps the best performer of all-time against them in Test cricket.

In his 10 matches, he has scored 1429 runs at an average of 84.05. An innings that has almost been forgotten, his 92 against India in Mohali in 2013, was the innings that marked the beginning of his journey as a Test batsman. He would face India again only a year later, in the "Summer of Steve" where he scored hundreds in the first innings of all four home Test matches against India and dominated a series more than almost any player has in Test match history.

The real challenge for him, critics said, would be proving himself in the spin-friendly conditions of India, and he did just that. In the first match of the series in 2017, on an almost treacherous dustbowl in Pune, he made one of the finest second innings hundreds in India and played one of the finest innings by an overseas batsman in Indian conditions. He would go on to make two more centuries in the innings and cement himself as one of the best, if not the best performer against Indian in recent times.