I'm saying lets not try to pretend one is an aberration while the other is not. You're trying to create the impression averaging less in a particular country is an aberration while averaging less in 3rd/4th innings against several oppoennts isn't, which is, in your own words, intellectually dishonest. Thats an inconsistency. You either acknowledge both as meaningful or both as aberrations.
I don't consider either an aberration. They're
both poor records that need closer looking at.
However, the
scope of the problem is much more limited in one than the other. It's not an aberration for Sehwag in any sense. Whether Overall, against non-subcontinental teams away or at home, against sub-continental teams away or home...he still has a poor 3rd/4th innings average. Unlike Ponting where it's a singular problem in one country...for Sehwag it spans every team in every country for their 3rd and 4th innings.
What's intellectually dishonest is saying that Ponting has played 18 innings in Australia and the innings in that analysis for Sehwag is also 18 innings...not mentioning Ponting has played twice as much cricket as Sehwag.
Theres no pretense. You mentioned 3rd and 4th innings in non-subcontinental teams, which is closer to 18, not 40. I don't see how you can try and pretend you can draw valid interpretations from 24 innings' played by Sehwag in the 3rd and 4th innings in India, while dismissing Pontings 21 innings' in the same country over all innings (ie with the added advantage of batting in the 1st and 2nd).
Sehwag has played more than 18 or 24 innings. It's much more than that. Check his records. Whether at home or away; whether against spinners or not; whether it includes subcontinental pitches or not...he has a poor 3rd/4th innings record. You're just creating a qualification which will naturally have a much smaller number - only non-subcontinental teams (there are only 5) and only away. Well, in half those innings he played 1st/2nd innings and in the other half 3rd/4th innings, and he did very badly.
Your original point was that because they face spinners during the latter stages they're bound to have weaker 3rd/4th innings records. That point is moot because against the sides that I linked you to (those 40 innings) no notable spinner troubled India in any sense. It was more India's own home spinners troubling others - which Sehwag does not face.
It's not like I buy your argument that 18-24 isn't enough to gauge anything on either. That many is enough. It's just that the scope of this argument brings much more than that. And you know it.
Thats actually a worse compilation. It doesn't compensate for the strengths of the home bowling attacks. I think I mentioned that before.
What doesn't compensate? You can't separate the strength of an attack and the ease of the pitch. In many ways you wouldn't want to. It's a package of problems playing in different countries. But every country plays in each of those pitches so it's more or less evened out. Does India have worse bowlers than NZ? No, but look at their records. Did Pakistan? No, yet they're as bad as the WIndies.
