England vs New Zealand, 2021: Test Series, Stats Preview - Player records and Approaching milestones

England and New Zealand are set to clash in a two-match Test series starting 2nd June. The first game of the series will be played at the Lord’s, London. This series will provide good preparation to the Kiwi side before the final of the World Test Championship against India. England too will be playing a five-match Test series against India in August later this year.

Let’s look at important stats and numbers before the start of the Test series between New Zealand and England:

Head to Head: Both teams have been part of 105 Test matches of which 48 have been won by England. The Kiwi team have won just 11 games while 46 matches have ended in a draw.

161 – James Anderson will be playing his 161st Test match in the first game of the series. He will surpass Alastair Cook (161) if he plays both games, and becomes the most Test cap holder for England.

1000 – English pacer Anderson has so far picked up 992 wickets in First-Class cricket. He needs 8 more scalps to reach the big landmark of 1000-wickets in First-Class cricket. He will be the first among the active cricketers to achieve the milestone.

3 – Stuart Broad has so far taken 517 wickets in 146 games in Test cricket. He will have a chance to become the third-highest wicket-taker in the format among pacers. If he takes 3 more wickets, he will overtake Courtney Walsh in the list who has 519 Test wickets. Only James Anderson (614) and Glenn McGrath (563) are other pacers ahead in the tally.

119  – Kane Williamson has scored 7881 runs as captain in international cricket so far. He needs 119 more runs to become second Kiwi captain after Stephen Fleming (11561) to reach the 8000-run mark. Among active players, he will be the second captain after Virat Kohli (12343) to achieve the milestone.

131 – Kiwi veteran Ross Taylor has aggregated 17869 runs in 440 matches across formats. He needs 131 more runs to become the first player from New Zealand to complete 18000 International runs.

9 – Tim Southee has taken 591 wickets in 303 international matches so far. He needs 9 more scalps to reach the 600-wicket landmark, and become the first Kiwi pacer to do so. Only Daniel Vettori has more wickets (696) among New Zealand bowlers.

51 – Joe Root has played 50 Tests as England captain till now, and he will surpass Michael Vaughan (51) in this series. The English skipper will reach the third spot after Alastair Cook (59) and Michael Atherton (54).