England vs India, 2018: 4th Test – Statistical Preview

India kept their chances alive in the Test series with a big win in the 3rd match in Nottingham after being 0-2 down in the series. India now have a perfect chance to put the hosts under pressure by levelling the series in the 4th Test starting on Thursday at the Rose Bowl in Southampton. Indian skipper Virat Kohli earned support from his fellow batsmen and the pacers delivered at the crucial stages to hand the team a victory. England, on the other hand, have exposed their batting flaws which could cost them big in the coming games.

All the key stats and numbers ahead of the 4th Test match in Southampton:

3 – This is the first in Test cricket for India when three different pace bowlers took 5-wicket hauls in a Test series. Ishant Sharma was the first Test while Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah claimed five-fers in the previous Test.

4 – Number of times a team failed to win a Test series after winning the first two matches in a Test series. England against South Africa in 1927/28 and 1956/57 drew the series after going 2-0 up and levelled the series against Windies in 1954 after being 0-2 down. England lost the 5-match Test series in 1936/37 in Australia by 2-3 from being 2-0 up. It is the only instance when a team won a Test series after being 0-2 down.

5 – Teams winning the 3rd match of the last five 5-match Test series have ended up winning the series. India won the 3rd match of this series after losing the first two.

19.21 – Alastair Cook has a batting average of 19.21 in the eight Tests he played in 2018. The England opener scored 269 runs in 14 Test innings this year with one fifty.

44.6 – Ishant Sharma has taken 31 wickets in eight matches at an average of 22.74 since his return to the Test XI in November 2017. His bowling strike rate of 44.6 in this span is the 4th best for any bowler with a minimum of 30 wickets.

249 – Number of wickets Ishant Sharma has taken in the 85 matches he has played thus far. He will be the 2nd slowest to complete 250 wickets in Test cricket after the South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis (127).

557 – James Anderson has claimed 557 wickets in the 141 Test matches he has played thus far. The Englishman needs seven more wickets to become the leading wicket-taker among pace bowlers by surpassing Glenn McGrath’s tally of 563 wickets.

2008 – If Prithvi Shaw makes his Test debut and plays alongside Rishabh Pant, it will be the first instance in ten years when India take the field in a Test match with two players under 21 years of age in the playing XI. The last such instance was in the Kanpur Test match against South Africa in 2008.

5994 – Virat Kohli is only six runs away from completing 6000 runs in Test cricket. He will be the 2nd fastest Indian and the 9th fastest overall to reach 6000 Test runs if he scores those six runs in his next innings.

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