Australian head coach Darren Lehmann has said that his New Year's resolution for 2014 is to make Australia a winning team away from home again.
Lehmann is pleased that the winter Ashes have been a 'wonderful punch-line' to an otherwise dismal 2013 and a good beginning for this year, and believes that the side is fired up to try and nail a 5-0 victory at the SCG over the next five days.
According to News.com.au, Lehmann said that in order to fulfill his New Year's resolution, Australia needs to lift their game on the road, given that they failed to win any of the nine offshore Tests in 2013, if they want to be world's top team again, ahead of the three heavy duty Test matches each against South Africa and Pakistan.
However, Lehmann said that the next team to snatch an edge and top the world rankings will be the one who starts winning away from home because no team is doing it currently, with statistics saying that apart from Tests involving Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, no team won a Test in their opponent's backyard in 2013.
According to Lehmann, given that there were 44 Tests played in the year, the statistic still represents a solid body of evidence and tells how comfortable teams feel playing at home now, adding that with home nations producing the wickets it is not easy to topple a side on their own patch.
