India v Australia 4th Test, Day 1 – Statistical Highlights

The first day of the deciding Test match between India and Australia at Dharamsala could be called a chinaman’s day out as Kuldeep Yadav, on his debut, picked up 4 wickets to wrench down Aussies, who were cruising through after winning the toss and deciding to bat first.

India fielded in the absence of Virat Kohli but the skipper for this Test, Ajinkya Rahane, held his calmness to pull things back for the hosts with help of Kuldeep. Steven Smith scored yet another century and fifties from Warner and Wade pushed their total to 300 before they were bowled out. Here we look at all the stats and numbers recorded during the day’s play.

1 – Kuldeep Yadav became the first chinaman from India to play Test cricket and the second from Asia after Sri Lanka’s L Sandakan.

1 – Steven Smith became the first Australian to score three centuries in a Test series in India. He is the 2nd visiting captain overall after Alastair Cook (2012/13) to score three hundred in a Test series in India.

3 – Steven Smith is now the 3rd player to score centuries in the maiden Test of 3 different away venues. Other two are Patsy Hendren and Simon Katich.

3 – Smith is now the 3rd Australian to score centuries in the maiden Test of 3 different venues (Pune, Ranchi and Dharamsala). Other two are Steve Waugh (Hobart, Darwin and Cairns) and Simon Katich (Antigua, Nagpur and Cardiff).

4 – Wickets picked by Kuldeep Yadav on the first day of his Test career, the joint 2nd most for any Indian. Mohammad Nissar took 5 wickets on the first day of India’s inaugural Test match in 1932 while Mohammed Shami took 4 wickets on his Test debut on day 1 vs West Indies at Kolkata, 2013.

4/68 – Kuldeep Yadav is the 3rd chinaman to take a 4-wicket haul in maiden Test innings after C Fleetwood-Smith (4/64) and L Sandakan (4/58).

7 – Number of centuries Steven Smith has scored vs India in the 10 Test matches against them, the joint 2nd most tons for any player in first 10 Tests against that team. Neil Harvey scored 8 tons in his first 10 Tests vs South Africa.

20 – Number of centuries Steven Smith has scored in Test cricket so far. He took 99 innings for scoring 20 Test tons, the 3rd fewest by any batsman. Don Bradman took 55 innings while Sunil Gavaskar and Matthew Hayden took 95 each.

79 – Wickets picked by Ravichandran Ashwin in Test cricket in 2016/17 season, the most by any player in a single season in Test cricket. He went past Dale Steyn’s record of 78 Test wickets in 2007/08 season.

99 – Number of consecutive Tests India played with at least one Delhi player in the XI before this Test. The last time they played a Test without a player from Delhi was way back in 2007 vs Australia at Melbourne.

300 – Runs scored during the day’s play, most runs scored in a single day of this series so far. Australia scored 299 runs on the opening day at Ranchi.

2013 – Last time before this Test, Matthew Wade scored a fifty in Test cricket was in 2013 vs India at Hyderabad.

2075 – Balls bowled by Umesh Yadav in Test cricket in 2016/17 season. These are the 5th most balls bowled by an Indian pacer in a Test season and most since 2449 by Venkatesh Prasad in 1996/97 season.