England v India 2014 - 3rd Test, Day 1: Facts and figures

Alastair Cook survived an edgy opening hour

England won the toss and decided to bat first on a Southampton pitch that had decent grass coverings. Mahendra Singh Dhoni had some surprise in store for the Indian fans when he revealed his playing XI: domestic veteran Pankaj Singh made it to the team after Lord’s hero Ishant Sharma was ruled out due to injury. As expected, Rohit Sharma, too, made it to the team in place of Stuart Binny.

Early in the day, Ravindra Jadeja gave Alastair Cook a let off when he missed a regulation catch at third slip off Pankaj’s bowling as England went past 50 without having lost a wicket, before Mohammed Shami dismissed Sam Robson. At the time of writing this article, England are 213/2, having lost their captain for a 231-ball 95: sixth time Cook has been for 90s in Test cricket, the most by an England batsman.

Here are a few interesting stats from day 1 of the 3rd Test:

• 1 – Pankaj Singh’s first Test match. He becomes the most experienced domestic pacer, with 300 wickets, to be making his debut bettering Vinay Kumar’s tally of 241.
• 1 – Cook’s innings today is his first half-century in this calender year: his highest score before today was 22 in the last Test match at Lord’s.
• 3 – The left-hander went past Kevin Pietersen and David Gower in the list of leading run-scorers for England in Test cricket: at No. 3 now with 8257 runs, trailing Graham Gooch by 643 runs.
• 7 – This Test is the 7th match as captain for Mahendra Singh Dhoni in England. No other Indian has been the skipper for more than 6 matches,
• 8 – Number of debutants India have fielded since the Australian tour of 2011/12 including Pankaj Singh. England have introduced 15 newcomers during the same period.
• 50 – The fifty-run partnership between Cook and Robson was only the 4th 50+ stand for the opening wicket for England in the last one year, the first in 10 innings.
• 100 – The century stand between Cook and Gary Ballance for the second wicket is England’s third straight such partnership in the last 3 Tests.
• 282 – Pankaj Singh became the 282nd player to represent India in Tests.
• 2000 – The 29-year-old Cook went past 2000 runs as captain for England. Michael Atherton(3815) tops the list, followed by Graham Gooch (3582).