England is taking on India for it's 1000th Test match at Headingly, Birmingham starting 1st August. As inventors of this modern game, it is quite appropriate that they are the first team to achieve this unique feat.
They played the first Test match against Australia in 1877 at Melbourne. Below are landmark Tests which they had played in their long journey. Looks like they didn't had much of a success in those; winning only their 700th and 900th Tests. England lost their 1st Test and 100th Test to Australia, while drew their 500th Test with Pakistan.
India were their opponents for the 300th, 400th and upcoming 1000th Tests.
Now lets take a look at the Test matches England has played. We will first take an overview of all the Tests played by England and then segregate the data by opponents and then by venues where the encounters took place.
Overall:
Out of the 999 Test matches England has played, 52% of them have been at Home while rest 48% have been away.
At Home England has won 41% of the matches they played, loosing 24% while the rest 35% have ended in a draw.
Away England has won only 30% of the matches while loosing 36% of them. Rest 34% matches have ended in a draw.
Overall England's record is win - 36%, loss - 30%, drawn - 34%. Thus overall they have been a successful Test campaigner, with their win percentage being more than their loss percentage.
The below graph is a plot of the number of Tests they have been playing each year. Evidently there are two major gap periods during the two World Wars. So far 2017 was the year in which England played most number of Test matches; 17 matches were played.
The below graph provides a distribution of the number of Tests England played by decade. Since the end of Second World War, the pace of playing has picked up drastically. Even though India, New Zealand and West Indies had debuted as Test playing nations in the 1930s, the interruption caused by war years impeded the number of tests England played against them.
However once the war ended the pace of playing Test cricket picked up; and Pakistan was also added as a new opponent. Since 1950s England has been playing on an average more than 100 Tests per decade. During the period between 1910 - 1950 an average of just over 40 Tests were played per decade. And for the period till just before 1910, the number of tests played per decade was just 25.
In the early period, till just before the start of WW II, England and Australia used to play chunk of the Test matches. But considering the great distance between the two countries and ships being the predominant mode of transport for most this period, must have hindered a large number of international Tests being played.
By Country:
Now let's take a look at the Home and Away distribution of the Test matches England has played. As we have noted earlier England they have a healthy distribution between Home and Away Tests.
First the Away data. As with most countries England has not been a very good visitor except in case of South Africa and New Zealand. Surprisingly while visiting these two countries England always have an upper hand. Their win percentage in South Africa and New Zealand have been a healthy 38 and 37. In New Zealand they have just 5 Tests and have draw 50% of the matches played there.
Against rest of the teams, apart from new entrant Bangladesh, England has been lagging behind in win percentage. Overall they won 30% of the matches and lost 36%.
Compare this with India; India's away Test win percentage has been close to 18% and they have lost 42% of the Away matches played.
Overall England can be taken as a good visitor though not an overly successful one.
At Home, England has been really good. They have won 41% of the Home Test matches and have been more successful than all of the visitors. Only Australia gives them a tough competition under Home conditions.
By Ground:
At Home England has played 50 or more times at the following venues. And they have been widely successful. For visitors Leeds looks to be the venue where there is maximum chance of England getting beaten.
Birmingham on the other hand, where England will be playing the 1000th Test against India, has been a particularly successful venue for England. Visitors have the least winning percentage of 16 while England has won 54% of the matches played there.
It would be a tough task ahead for India it seems. In fact Australia, West Indies and South Africa are the only visiting teams to have ever won in Birmingham.
Thus has been England's long Test history spanning a period of more than 140 years. There were much rumors that Test cricket would soon die under pressure from the much faster T20 version.
But as it has been seen, Test cricket is a different game and not many of the hard hitting T20 cricketers have found success in Test cricket.
In between test cricket was bogged down by the defensive style of play by most of teams; the objective being to always salvage a draw. However teams like Australia changed that with some aggressive playing and other teams have also followed the rhythm.
Now a days more and more Test matches are ending in a decisive manner thus renewing the interest of the general fans in Test cricket.
Congratulations to Team England for scaling the mountain of 1000 Test matches for the first time.
And hoping for an India win.
References:
They played the first Test match against Australia in 1877 at Melbourne. Below are landmark Tests which they had played in their long journey. Looks like they didn't had much of a success in those; winning only their 700th and 900th Tests. England lost their 1st Test and 100th Test to Australia, while drew their 500th Test with Pakistan.
India were their opponents for the 300th, 400th and upcoming 1000th Tests.
Now lets take a look at the Test matches England has played. We will first take an overview of all the Tests played by England and then segregate the data by opponents and then by venues where the encounters took place.
Overall:
Out of the 999 Test matches England has played, 52% of them have been at Home while rest 48% have been away.
At Home England has won 41% of the matches they played, loosing 24% while the rest 35% have ended in a draw.
Away England has won only 30% of the matches while loosing 36% of them. Rest 34% matches have ended in a draw.
Overall England's record is win - 36%, loss - 30%, drawn - 34%. Thus overall they have been a successful Test campaigner, with their win percentage being more than their loss percentage.
The below graph is a plot of the number of Tests they have been playing each year. Evidently there are two major gap periods during the two World Wars. So far 2017 was the year in which England played most number of Test matches; 17 matches were played.
The below graph provides a distribution of the number of Tests England played by decade. Since the end of Second World War, the pace of playing has picked up drastically. Even though India, New Zealand and West Indies had debuted as Test playing nations in the 1930s, the interruption caused by war years impeded the number of tests England played against them.
However once the war ended the pace of playing Test cricket picked up; and Pakistan was also added as a new opponent. Since 1950s England has been playing on an average more than 100 Tests per decade. During the period between 1910 - 1950 an average of just over 40 Tests were played per decade. And for the period till just before 1910, the number of tests played per decade was just 25.
In the early period, till just before the start of WW II, England and Australia used to play chunk of the Test matches. But considering the great distance between the two countries and ships being the predominant mode of transport for most this period, must have hindered a large number of international Tests being played.
By Country:
When distributing the Test matches by opponents we see that England has played 50% of their 999 Test matches against just 2 opponents; Australia and West Indies. And against both of them they have an unfavorable record having lost more than they have won.
Against both these 2 opponents they have played 500 Test matches, loosing 40% of the matches and winning just 31% of them.
While against rest of the Test playing nations England has played 499 Tests winning 40% of them. And loosing just less than 20% of the matches played.
Thus it can be inferred that England has had it tough against arch rivals Australia and West Indies, but against rest of the Test playing nations they have had an upper hand.
Now let's take a look at the Home and Away distribution of the Test matches England has played. As we have noted earlier England they have a healthy distribution between Home and Away Tests.
First the Away data. As with most countries England has not been a very good visitor except in case of South Africa and New Zealand. Surprisingly while visiting these two countries England always have an upper hand. Their win percentage in South Africa and New Zealand have been a healthy 38 and 37. In New Zealand they have just 5 Tests and have draw 50% of the matches played there.
Against rest of the teams, apart from new entrant Bangladesh, England has been lagging behind in win percentage. Overall they won 30% of the matches and lost 36%.
Compare this with India; India's away Test win percentage has been close to 18% and they have lost 42% of the Away matches played.
Overall England can be taken as a good visitor though not an overly successful one.
At Home, England has been really good. They have won 41% of the Home Test matches and have been more successful than all of the visitors. Only Australia gives them a tough competition under Home conditions.
By Ground:
Below are the grounds outside where England have at least played 10 Test matches. As we see Melbourne and Sydney have been the most favored venues outside the island. More than 100 Tests were played in these two venues which featured England.
In fact for both these grounds more than 50% of the Test matches played featured England. And they have a decent success record in both these venues.
As expected England has been successful on grounds in South Africa and New Zealand which explains their favorable away record against both these teams.
Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide had been among the mos unfavorable hunting grounds for England while travelling.
At Home England has played 50 or more times at the following venues. And they have been widely successful. For visitors Leeds looks to be the venue where there is maximum chance of England getting beaten.
Birmingham on the other hand, where England will be playing the 1000th Test against India, has been a particularly successful venue for England. Visitors have the least winning percentage of 16 while England has won 54% of the matches played there.
It would be a tough task ahead for India it seems. In fact Australia, West Indies and South Africa are the only visiting teams to have ever won in Birmingham.
Thus has been England's long Test history spanning a period of more than 140 years. There were much rumors that Test cricket would soon die under pressure from the much faster T20 version.
But as it has been seen, Test cricket is a different game and not many of the hard hitting T20 cricketers have found success in Test cricket.
In between test cricket was bogged down by the defensive style of play by most of teams; the objective being to always salvage a draw. However teams like Australia changed that with some aggressive playing and other teams have also followed the rhythm.
Now a days more and more Test matches are ending in a decisive manner thus renewing the interest of the general fans in Test cricket.
Congratulations to Team England for scaling the mountain of 1000 Test matches for the first time.
And hoping for an India win.
References:
- Data sourced from ESPNCricinfo.com
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