Stats: England's Test history in numbers

England’s Test cricket history moves into a new stride on August 1 as the oldest Test playing nation will be a part of their 1000th match when they face India in the first of the 5-match Test series at the Edgbaston in Birmingham. Thus, England will become the first team in the history to complete 1000 Test matches with only Australia (812) as the other team to have played more than 550 Tests thus far.

The Joe Root led England team will be going into the game with their leading run-getter in Test history Alastair Cook and their top two wicket-takers James Anderson and Stuart Broad in the playing XI.

Here we look at some of the numbers from England’s Test history thus far:

9 – England won nine consecutive Test series including the one-off Tests they played between 1884 and 1892. Australia and India levelled England’s streak but no team has managed to surpass it till date.

10/53 – Jim Laker’s 10/53 in the 1956 Manchester Test against Australia was the first instance when a player bagged 10 wickets in a Test inning. His 10/53 remain the best bowling figures in a Test inning till date. He finished the game with figures of 19/90 which is the best by any bowler in a first-class match.

26 – England remained unbeaten in Test cricket between 1968 and 1971 where they played 26 Test matches. Their streak is only bettered by West Indies with 27 consecutive Tests without a defeat between 1982 and 1984.

80 – As many as 80 players led England in Test cricket with Joe Root being the latest.

156 – Alastair Cook is the most capped England Test cricketer with 156 appearances in this format including an ongoing 154-match streak of consecutive appearances for England. He led his team in 59 Tests, also most by any England captain.

297 – England not only holds the record for playing most number of matches (999) but also the record for most number of losses (297). They’ve won 357 matches thus far which is the 2nd most behind Australia’s 383 wins.

540 – James Anderson is the only player to have picked 500 Test wickets for the team. Stuart Broad has 417 wickets to his name who is the only other player with 400+ Test wickets for England.

686 – A total of 686 players have featured in Test cricket for England with Sam Curran in the Leeds Test against Pakistan being the most recent. Five players made their Test debut for different nations before featuring for England while four players made their Test debut for England and went on to play for another team.

12145 – Alastair Cook, with 12145 runs in Test cricket, is the only player to score over 9000 Test runs for England. His 4844 runs as captain are also the most by any England captain in Test cricket.

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