England vs West Indies, 2020: 3-match Test series – Statistical Preview

International Cricket is finally set for a resumption amidst the COVID-19 outbreak as England takes on West Indies in a 3-match Test series at home. All professional cricket has been suspended from mid-March due to the coronavirus.

But the ECB has come up with required measures to see the back of top tier cricket. The first of the three Tests will be played at the Ageas Oval where Ben Stokes will be making his Test captaincy debut as their regular skipper Joe Root

Here we look all the key stats and numbers ahead of the 3-match Test series between England and West Indies:

0 – Number of matches in which Ben Stokes has stood as captain in his professional cricket. On Wednesday, Stokes will become the 81st Test captain of England and would also make his professional captaincy debut.

1 – The first game of this series will be the first instance of Joe Root missing a Test as captain of England. He has led the English team in all the 39 Tests they played since his captaincy debut in 2017 during the home series against South Africa.

In fact, Root had missed only one of the 93 Test matches that England played since his Test debut in 2012 December. The only Test he missed till date was the 2014 SCG Test against Australia where he was dropped in favour of the debutant Gary Balance.

3 – England has not lost any of the three Test matches played at the Rose Bowl in Southampton. They drew a Test in 2011 with Sri Lanka and defeated India by 266 runs and 60 runs respectively in 2014 and 2018.

7 – The West Indies opener Kraigg Brathwaite has been dismissed on seven instances in Test cricket in the bowling of James Anderson. Kraigg scored 112 runs at an average of 16 in this format against Anderson.

20.08 – Shai Hope’s Test batting average since the start of 2018 is the lowest among the 64 players who have managed to aggregate 500+ runs in this while. Shai amassed just 502 runs in the 26 innings he batted across the 14 Test matches with help of only two half-centuries.

77 – The Southampton Test will bring an end to Joe Root’s streak of 77 consecutive appearances in Test cricket for England. Root’s streak, which began in 2014, is the longest among the active players.

In fact, the coming series against West Indies will also bring an end to Root’s 39 consecutive appearances as England’s captain in the longer format which is also the longest streak among the current cricketers.

102 – James Anderson accounted for as many as 102 wickets in Test cricket at home since the start of 2016 season. He picked those 102 wickets across 21 Tests at an impressive average of 15.84 and has a strike rate under 40.

193 – Number of wickets picked by Kemar Roach during his 56-match Test career. He needs seven more wickets for becoming the 9th player to bag 200 wickets for West Indies in Test cricket.

1898 – Jason Holder has amassed 1898 runs across the 40 Tests he played alongside 106 wickets. The West Indies skipper needs 102 more runs to become only the 3rd West Indies player to complete the double of 2000 runs and 100 wickets in Test cricket.

2012 – The last instance of England playing a home Test in the absence of Stuart Broad. It is rumoured that the paceman will be left out from the first Test’s playing XI. The last home Test which Broad missed was the 2012 Birmingham Test against West Indies.

The first two days of the 2012 match were washed out and Broad had to be left out as he was unwell.  Broad was part of England’s playing XI in all the 51 home Test matches they played since then.