India's Tour of England: KL Rahul breaks records at Lord's

K. L. Rahul became the third Indian batsman to score Test centuries at both the cricket grounds in London – at the Lord’s and at the Oval.

3: The number of Indian batsmen who have the distinction of scoring Test centuries at both the cricket grounds in London – at the Lord’s and at the Oval. KL Rahul at Lord’s became the latest entrant. For the record, the first batsman to achieve this in Test cricket is Australia Syd Gregory in 1899 when he made 117 at the Oval after making 103 at Lord’s in 1896.

Indians scoring Test centuries at both grounds in London

Batsman	Runs	Venue	Month, Year	Result
Ravi Shastri	100	Lord’s	July 1990	Lost
	187	The Oval	Aug 1990	Drawn
Rahul Dravid	217	The Oval	Sep 2002	Drawn
	103*	Lord’s	July 2011	Lost
	146*	The Oval	Aug 2011	Lost
KL Rahul	149	The Oval	Sep 2018	Lost
	129	Lord’s	Aug 2021	Won

Notes:

** Both Shastri and Dravid managed to do this in the same series.

** These are the only two Test centuries for Shastri and Rahul in England.

** Dravid has in all six Test centuries in England. The others coming in Nottingham (2) and Leeds (1)

READ: A new low in Nottingham for the host

2: The number of Indian opening batsmen who have the honour of scoring centuries in a winning cause in Test matches played outside Asia. KL Rahul’s 129 at Lord’s is now the highest winning score by an Indian opener outside Asia. The only other Indian batsman is Sunil Gavaskar who has three such centuries – in Auckland, Port of Spain and Melbourne.

Test centuries by Indian openers outside Asia in a winning cause

Runs	MInns	Batsman	Opponent	Venue	Month, Year	Result
116	2	Sunil Gavaskar	New Zealand	Auckland	January 1976	won by 8 wickets
103	4	Sunil Gavaskar	West Indies	Port of Spain	April 1976	won by 6 wickets
118	3	Sunil Gavaskar	Australia	Melbourne	January 1978	won by 222 runs
129	1	KL Rahul	England	Lord’s	August 2021	won by 151 runs

Notes

** At Auckland Gavaskar was also captain

** At Melbourne Gavaskar made a duck in the first innings

** KL Rahul batted at #2

** In all 47 centuries have been registered by Indian openers outside Asia, of which 16 centuries have been scored in lost causes and 27 in drawn Test matches.

READ:  KL Rahul: Our month-long preparation paid off in first Test

6: The number of 100-plus opening partnerships by visiting openers in England after being put into bat by the home Test captain. The 126-run stand at Lord’s by Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul is now the second highest by a visiting opening pair. Incidentally, this 100-plus stand is India’s only second outside Asia under these circumstances after being put into bat. In April 1976 against the West Indies at Kingston, Sunil Gavaskar (66) and Aunshuman Gaekwad (81) put on 136 for the opening wicket after Clive Lloyd put India in to bat. However, India lost the infamous bloodbath Test by ten wickets!

100-plus opening stand by visiting openers after being put into bat in England

Stand	Opening batsman1	Opening batsman2	For	Venue	Month, Year	Result	Home captain
116	Jack Siedle (35)	Bruce Mitchell (128)	SA	The Oval	Aug 1935	Drawn	Bob Wyatt
120	Graeme Wood (66)	Martin Kent (54)	Aus	The Oval	Aug 1981	Drawn	Mike Brearley
128	Mark Taylor (124)	Michael Slater (58)	Aus	Manchester	Jun 1993	Won	Graham Gooch
120	Alviro Petersen (182)	Graeme Smith (52)	SA	Leeds	Aug 2012	Drawn	Andrew Strauss
110	Chris Rogers (43)	David Warner (85)	Aus	The Oval	Aug 2015	Won	Alastair Cook
126	Rohit Sharma (83)	KL Rahul (129)	Ind	Lord’s	Aug 2021	Won	Joe Root

 

4: The number of pace bowlers older than James Anderson to claim a five-wicket haul in Test cricket history. It has been 70 years since a pace bowler older than Anderson had a five-wicket haul in Test cricket. Before Anderson, South African Geoff Chubb, was the last to do it at Manchester in July 1951. Incidentally, Anderson with his five-wicket haul at Lord’s is now the oldest Test pace bowler to do so against India.

Oldest pace bowlers to claim a Test five-wicket haul

Age	Bowler	Figures	For	Against	Venue	Date	Result
40y-304d	Sydney Barnes	(7/88)	England	South Africa	Durban	17 Feb 1914	Drawn
40y-86d	Geoff Chubb	(6/61)	South Africa	England	Manchester	7 Jul 1951	Lost
40y-72d	Freddie Brown	(5/49)	England	Australia	Melbourne	26 Feb 1951	Won
39y-231d	Frank Laver	(8/31)	Australia	England	Manchester	26 Jul 1909	Drawn
39y-14d	James Anderson	(5/62)	England	India	Lord’s	13 Aug 2021	Lost
39y-6d	Richard Hadlee	(5/53)	New Zealand	England	Birmingham	9 Jul 1990	Lost

Note: Barnes has claimed a five-wicket haul after the age of 39 years on 13 occasions, while Chubb has done it twice! However, only their latest five-wicket haul details are listed above.

 

Oldest pace bowlers to claim a Test five-wicket haul against India

Age	Bowler	Figures	For	Venue	Date	Result
39y-14d	James Anderson	(5/62)	England	Lord’s	13 Aug 2021	Lost
37y-349d	Bevan Congdon	(5/65)	New Zealand	Auckland	26 Jan 1976	Lost
37y-145d	Richard Hadlee	(6/49)	New Zealand	Mumbai WS	25 Nov 1988	Won

 

4: The number of occasions James Anderson has claimed a five-wicket haul against India at Lord’s. This is now the most claimed by any bowler against India at a particular venue.

His five-wicket hauls against India at Lord’s

#	Figures	Month, Year	Result
1	5/42	July 2007	Drawn
2	5/65	July 2011	Won
3	5/20	August 2018	Won
4	5/62	August 2021	Lost

Note: in 2014 his best figures against India at Lord’s were: 4/60 (Lost)

Most five-wicket hauls against India at a particular venue

5wkt Hauls	Bowler	For	Venue	5-wkt hauls achieved in	Tests played
4	James Anderson	England	Lord’s	2007, 2011, 2018, 2021	5
3	Ian Botham	England	Mumbai WS	1980 (2), 1981	2
3	Malcolm Marshall	West Indies	Port of Spain	1983, 1989 (2)	2
3	M Muralidharan	Sri Lanka	Colombo SSC	2001, 2008 (2)	3
3	Nathan Lyon	Australia	Adelaide	2014 (2), 2018	4

Note: For the record, England’s Sydney Barnes holds this record by claiming 5 five-wicket hauls at a single venue against Australia in Test cricket. From 1902 to 1912 he had five-wicket hauls at Melbourne!

 

3167: The number of days Joe Root needed to reach 9000 Test runs, during the Lord Test match, since his debut in December 2012. This is now the quickest by any of the 16 Test batsmen with 9000-plus Test runs. The previous record was held by former teammate Alastair Cook in June 2015. Incidentally, Root is also now the second youngest (30y-228d) after Cook (30y-159d) to reach the 9000 runs in Test cricket! Root has now pushed Sachin Tendulkar to the third position (30y-253d).

READ: Rohit Sharma completes 11,000 international runs as opener

Quickest to reach to 9000 Test runs in terms of fewest days

Days	Batsman	For	Mts	Inns	Against	Venue	Achieved on	Test debut
3167	Joe Root	Eng	107	196	India	Lord’s	15 Aug 2021	13 Dec 2012
3380	Alastair Cook	Eng	114	204	New Zealand	Leeds	2 June 2015	1 Mar 2006
3661	Rahul Dravid	Ind+	104	176	West Indies	Kingston	1 Jul 2006	22 Jun 1996
4003	Ricky Ponting	Aus	106	177	England	Brisbane	25 Nov 2006	10 Dec 1995
4123	Kumar Sangakkara	SL	103	172	Pakistan	Sharjah	3 Nov 2011	20 Jul 2000

+ Also played one Test for ICC World XI

 

8: The number of wickets claimed by Mohd Siraj in the Lord’s Test match. His final figures of 8/126 are now the best by any Indian bowler in a Lord’s Test match.

Best match figures at Lord’s for India

Figures	Bowler	Month, Year	Result
8/126	Mohd Siraj	Aug 2021	Won
8/168	Kapil Dev	Jun 1982	Lost
7/117	Rudra Pratap Singh	Jul 2007	Drawn
7/130	Venkatesh Prasad	Jun 1996	Drawn
7/135	Ishant Sharma	Jul 2014	Won

 

78: India’s total on the first day of the Leeds Test match. It is now India’s third lowest total on the opening day of a Test match. It is also their lowest ever on the opening day in an away Test match. Incidentally, overall, it was India’s ninth lowest total in Test cricket and their seven lowest away from home. In England, it is their third lowest after the 42 (at Lord’s in 1974) and 58 (at Manchester in 1952).

India’s lowest Test total on the first day of the Test match

Total	Overs	Opponent (Score at close)	Venue	Date	Result
75	30.5	West Indies (118/8)	Delhi	25 Nov 1987	Lost by 5 wkts
76	20.0	South Africa (223/4)	Ahmedabad	3 Apr 2008	Lost by an inns & 90 runs
78	40.4	England (120/0)	Leeds	25 Aug 2021	Lost by an inns & 76 runs
83	27.0	New Zealand (119/3)	Mohali	10 Oct 1999	Drawn
96	55.5	England (53/1)	Lord’s	2 Aug 1979	Drawn

Note: Against New Zealand at Hamilton on 20 Dec 2002, India was 92/8. Dismissed next day for 99 (38.2 overs). Lost Test by 4 wickets.

4: The number of occasions India’s first innings totals have been surpassed by the opponent’s openers. India at Leeds, after being dismissed for a paltry 78, conceded an opening partnership of 135 to England.

Opponent’s opening pair surpassing India’s first innings Test total

India’s total	Opponent’s opening stand	Opponent	Venue	Date	Result
173	191 (Bob Simpson 109, Bill Lawry 100)	Australia (529)	Melbourne	1 Jan 1968	Aus won by an inns & 4 runs
76	78 (Graeme Smith 34, Neil McKenzie 42)	South Africa (494/7d)	Ahmedabad	+3 Apr 2008	SAf won by an inns & 90 runs
161	214 (ED Cowan 74, David Warner 180)	Australia (369)	Perth	14 Jan 2012	Aus won by an inns & 37 runs
78	135 (Rory Burns 61, Haseeb Hameed 68)	England (432)	Leeds	+25 Aug 2021	Eng won by an inns & 76 runs

+ took lead on the 1 day

 

5: The number of occasions Indian batsmen, unbeaten overnight in the 90s, were dismissed next day without registering a three-figure score. Cheteshwar Pujara, in the second innings at Leeds, was 91 not out at close of play on the 3 day but was dismissed in the same score next day. Pujara, now becomes the first Indian not to add any runs to his overnight score in the nineties the next day.

Indian Test batsmen overnight in the 90s, failing to make a three figure score the next day

Batsman	Overnight score	Final score	Against	Venue	Dismissed date	Lost
Ajit Wadekar	97*	99	Australia	Melbourne	3 Jan 1968	Lost
Sachin Tendulkar	90*	96	Sri Lanka	Bangalore	27 Jan 1994	WON
Gautam Gambhir	95*	97	Zimbabwe	Harare	21 Sep 2005	WON
M Vijay	91*	97	South Africa	Durban	27 Dec 2013	Lost
Cheteshwar Pujara	91*	91	England	Leeds	28 Aug 2021	Lost

 

All records are updated and correct as of 28 August 2021