Player Battles: Steve Waugh vs Mark Taylor

#2 Away performance

Waugh made his debut as a 20-year-old in 1985

Taylor made his debut at the age of 25 years in 1989, after playing consistently well for his state side New South Wales. Waugh, who was his state team-mate, was given a chance at a young age of 20 in 1985 to prove his worth against the touring Indian side at MCG. Taylor’s captaincy debut was the tour of Pakistan in 1994-95 while for Waugh, an away series against West Indies in 1998-99 was the first one as captain.

As a batsman, both Taylor and Waugh were phenomenal and averaged more than 40. While Taylor played 104 matches, Waugh went on to represent the country 168 times. Let’s have a look at the batting numbers for both of these fine players:

Mark Taylor

The consistency in home and away average was one key feature of Taylor's career. He also outnumbered Steve Waugh with three second innings away centuries compared to Waugh's one. His highest score of mammoth 334* came on a Peshawar track against Pakistan in 1998.

He enjoyed batting in English conditions, where he scored five centuries. One of his best match-winning knock was his 102 not out in the second innings at Bengaluru, 1998.

	Matches	innings	Runs	Average	100s	Highest score
Home	55	100	3993	43.40	11	170
Away	49	86	3532	43.60	8	334*
Total	104	186	7525	43.49	19	334*

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Steve Waugh

A striking aspect of Waugh's away numbers is the batting average of 55.50. Amongst the players playing in the 21st century, it is the fourth highest after Andy Flower, Hashim Amla, and Jacques Kallis.

Just like Taylor, England was his favourite away country and he scored 7 out of his 17 away centuries, followed by 4 in West Indies and 2 in Pakistan. One of his best knocks of 177* came against England at Old Trafford in 1989.

	Matches	Innings	runs	Average	100s	Highest score
Home	89	140	5710	47.58	15	170
Away	79	120	5217	55.50	17	200
Total	168	260	10927	51.06	32	200