- Tuesday, February 25, 2025
While the Indian cricketer is having a good series in which he completed 500 Test wickets, the England batter has not been able to score a single 40-plus score so far.
By: Shubham Ghosh
THE fifth and final Test match between India and England beginning in Dharamsala on Thursday (7) might be a dead rubber since the hosts have already clinched the five-game series 3-1. Yet, the match will keep the statisticians interested since one player from each side will be playing their 100th game in the format in the same outing.
India spinner allrounder Ravichandran Ashwin and England batter Jonny Bairstow are the two cricketers. It is only the fourth instance in the history of the game that two players will be playing their 100th Test in the same match.
The other three instances happened in 2000 when former England captains Michael Atherton and Alec Stewart reached the landmark against the West Indies at Old Trafford. In a match in Centurion in 2006, three players had appeared for their 100th match and they were Jacques Kallis and Shaun Pollock of South Africa and Stephen Fleming of New Zealand. The other one was in an Ashes Test in Perth in 2013 when England’s former captain Alastair Cook shared the record book with his former Australia counterpart Michael Clarke.
Read: India’s Bumrah back for fifth England Test
It will also mark only the second occasion when two players from the opposing teams will be playing their 100th Test in the same game.
The Ashwin-Bairstow milestone will not be the last either.
Just a day after the India-England match begins, New Zealand captain Tim Southee and his predecessor Kane Williamson will play their 100th Test together during the second match against Australia.
Read: This England cricketer has ‘man crush’ on India’s Dhruv Jurel, reveals Ben Stokes
While both players will register a similar record, the ongoing series has seen Ashwin and Bairstow gathering a contradictory experience. The former has picked 17 wickets in four Tests so far and completed 500 scalps in the long format as the second Indian and ninth overall. Bairstow, on the other hand, has managed just 180 runs in eight innings (he was dismissed once by Ashwin) with the highest score of 38. He is also 26 runs short of completing 6,000 runs in the format.
In the third Test in Rajkot which England lost by 434 runs, captain Ben Stokes appeared for his 100th Test.
