Some of crickets all-time greats still had serious gaps in their CVs, especially when it came to performing overseas.

Shane Warne struggled in India, Muttiah Muralitharan averaged over 70 in Australia and Steve Waugh could not buy a run in Sri Lanka despite averaging over 100 against them at home.

At the same time, there are some who have managed to compete at the same level no matter the conditions, and finished their careers without venue-specific gaps in their records. Here is an all-time Test XI of greats who performed wherever they played.

Sunil Gavaskar

Worst record: 186 runs at 37 in Sri Lanka

Gavaskar began with a dream visit to the Caribbean in 1971 and finished on a high on home soil sixteen years later. In between, he stacked up near-perfect numbers virtually everywhere he set foot. Beyond the debut series in West Indies (774 runs @ 154.8), he hit three more centuries in the Caribbean. Elsewhere, he struck 11 centuries combined (Australia, Pakistan, England, New Zealand – averaging over 40 in each of those places). And, at home, he hit nearly half his Test runs.

Bob Simpson

Worst record: 568 runs at 35 in the West Indies (619 runs at 39 in South Africa before recall)

Simpson was past 40 when he came out of retirement to take over as captain of a third-string Australian side during the Kerry Packer era. He dropped down the order in this phase of his career. As opener, he scored runs everywhere – in England, Pakistan, South Africa and the West Indies. The only marginal blemish was a lack of hundreds in India, but he averaged 48 there with three fifties in six innings, top-scoring in the drawn 1964/65 tour.

Greg Chappell

Worst record: 1,020 runs at 41 in England

Lauded by many as one of the greatest Australian batters – and that is saying something – Chappell averaged at least 40 in every country he played in. His worst record was in England, where he still scored over 1,000 runs at 41 (though he led Australia to a defeat in the country in 1977). The only batting caveat comes from his never having played in India, although he did average 75 in Asia for his 447 runs across four games in Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Sachin Tendulkar

Worst record: 240 runs at 40 in Zimbabwe

Test cricket’s highest ever run-scorer seemed to find batting easy wherever he went, and spread his 51 hundreds across every then-Test playing nation except Zimbabwe, where he played just four times. He completed the ‘full set’ of averaging 40 in all 10 countries, scoring five or more tons in Australia, Bangladesh, South Africa, Sri Lanka and India. He also passed fifty in 21 consecutive years from 1993 onwards.

Allan Border

Worst record: 152 runs at 38 in South Africa

The ‘definitive Australian captain’ scored a Test hundred in all but one of the eight countries he played in, missing out only in a three-match series in South Africa when, even at 39, he averaged 38. Border also averaged 53 in the West Indies despite facing Malcolm Marshall in each of the 10 Tests he played in the Caribbean. He made six hundreds in Asia, where he averaged 55, the highlight being his 150 not out and 153 in Lahore in 1979/80: he still remains the only batter to score two 150s in a Test match.

AB de Villiers (wk)

Worst record (minimum four Tests): 338 runs at 42 in Sri Lanka

While de Villiers can be accused of being something of a flat-track bully after 1,372 runs at 98 on the roads of the UAE and the West Indies, he did average over 42 in every nation where he played more than twice, with a particularly strong record in England (545 runs at 54.50). He also excelled with the big gloves without been hampered by the extra workload, averaging 57 in 24 Tests as wicketkeeper. He did score a very un-de Villiers like seven off 34 balls in his only innings in Zimbabwe, though. Must try harder.

Alan Davidson

Worst record: 33 wickets at 25 in England

One of the greatest cricketers of all time, Davidson’s record shows he truly was master of all conditions. A left-arm quick who lacked genuine pace, Davidson’s accuracy and guile earned him an outstanding record in India (30 wickets at 15.76), his best in any country. His average in a single country (25 in England) is less than James Anderson’s career average, and he had essentially a faultless bowling record. Just to show no one is perfect (we are nitpicking here) Davidson did fail to score a fifty from 10 Tests in Asia after scoring five in Australia, England and South Africa.

Dale Steyn

Worst record: 23 wickets at 32 in England

Widely considered to be among the best fast bowlers of his generation, Steyn took five-wicket hauls in eight different countries including five in Asia. He did average over 30 with the ball in England and Sri Lanka, but took crucial five-fors on the way to series wins in both countries. He averaged 21 in India, where he took his career best figures of 7-51 and took part in some thrilling battles with Tendulkar.

Curtly Ambrose

Worst record: 15 wickets at 25 in Pakistan

Playing against the best in the world seemed to get the best out of Ambrose. He took 78 wickets at a shade under 20 against the Australian side that was on the rise in the 1990s, including his famous took 7-1 in a spell at the WACA in 1993/94. He used his 6ft 7in to extract bounce, but was equally devastating when there was less bounce on offer, for he averaged 21 in England. Bizarrely, he never played in India, missing out on the 1994/95 tour. It does raise a small question over how he would have got on against Tendulkar and Mohammad Azharuddin in India: he averaged nearly 40 against India at home, his worst against any country.

Lance Gibbs

Worst record (minimum four Tests): 59 wickets at 33 in Australia

The remarkable thing about Gibbs’ record was how little it changed depending on the country he played in. Leaving aside New Zealand, where he played just three Tests, he maintained an economy between 1.8 and 2, while striking at between 75 and 97. He thrived on the pitches of India, taking 39 wickets at 23, hated giving away runs so much that he “made a rude protest” when Shakoor Rana called him for overstepping, and averaged a respectable 33 in Australia where he was still able to fulfil an effective holding role. His career economy of 1.98 is the lowest among bowlers with 200 Test wickets.

Glenn McGrath

Worst record: 19 wickets at 31 in Pakistan

McGrath’s highest average in a country where he played more than five Tests was just 24. He famously tormented batters in England (87 wickets at 19), but he also averaged under 20 in the UAE, New Zealand and Zimbabwe. It is hard to find a genuine fault in his record, but – and we are clutching on to straws here – he did manage just one wicket at 71 in four ODIs in Malaysia. His economy was below three, though, so arguably he was not even a failure there.

Subscribe to the Wisden Cricket YouTube channel for post-match analysis, player interviews, and much more.