Australia vs England, 2nd Ashes Test, Day 1 Stats Review: Marnus Labuschagne enters elite list as hosts dominate Day 1

The first day of the second Ashes Test was kind of Déjà vu for England as Australia entirely dominated the proceedings. Although Marcus Harris got out early, David Warner and Marnus Labuschagne shared a big partnership before the former got out in the nineties. Labuschagne continued his rich vein of form, and the Three Lions struggled at the Adelaide Oval. Notably, Pat Cummins, the new captain, got ruled out of the Test because of close Covid contact, and the stand-in skipper Steve Smith won the toss and had no hesitation in batting first.

Marcus Harris struggled for his three runs off 28 balls and got out to Stuart Broad for the fourth time in his career. Then it was the repeat of the Gabba scenario as David Warner and Marnus Labuschagne shared 172-run partnership between them as the former fell short of his 25th Test century yet again by just five runs. All-rounder Ben Stokes took his wicket and subesequently, Steve Smith came in. Marnus Labuschagne scored yet another 50 plus score, his 16th in WTC which is equaled with England skipper Joe Root, as the Kangaroos finished on 221/2 at Stump’s on Day one.

The visitors would hope that the returning experienced duo of James Anderson and Stuart Broad will take wickets on the second day before the hosts run away with a big first-innings total. On the other hand, Australia, with eight wickets in hand and the in-form Travis Head to come in next, will look to post a big score in the first innings before the bowling attack minus Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood takes the charge.

Meanwhile, here are the stats and numbers from Australia vs England, 2^nd Ashes Test Day 1:

150 – Stuart Broad appeared in his 150th Test. Overall, he is the tenth player to reach the landmark.

3 – Stuart Broad became the third England player after James Anderson and Alastair Cook to play 150 Tests.

167 – James Anderson took the field for 167th time in Tests. Only India’s Sachin Tendulkar (200), Australia’s pair of Ricky Ponting (168) and Steve Waugh (168) have played more Tests than him.

4 – Fourth time Marcus Harris got out to Stuart Broad. Jasprit Bumrah, Jofra Archer, Ravindra Jadeja and Shardul Thakur all have dismissed him twice in Tests.

34 – Marnus Labuschagne is the fifth-fasted batter to reach 2000 Test runs, getting the milestone in his 34th innings. Don Bradman (22), George Headley (32), Herbert Sutcliffe and Michael Hussey (33) all achieved the milestone before him.

15 – Marcus Harris hasn’t scored a fifty in his last 15 Test innings. His last half-century came against India in January 2019.

5 – With 4740 runs, David Warner became the fifth highest run-score for Australia in Tests at home. He overtook Michael Clarke’s tally of 4654 runs.

691 – David Warner has now scored the most runs in Day/night Test matches.

16 – Marnus Labuschagne is now joint-top with Joe Root for most 50 plus scores in WTC.

3 – Southpaw David Warner became the third batter after Babar Azam and Sami Aslam to get out in nineties in Day/night Tests.

5 – Marnus Labuschagne has now scored most 50 plus scores in Day/night Test matches. His teammate Steve Smith and Pakistan’s Asad Shafiq are behind him with four such scores.

1137 – David Warner has scored 1137 runs opening the batting in WTC. Only SriLanka’s Dimuth Karunaratne (1462) and India’s Rohit Sharma (1256) are above him.

10 – David Warner with 7500 runs in Tests became the tenth highest run-scorer for Australia in Tests.