Stats Burst: Marnus Labuschagne in elite company after superb start to Test career

Champagne Labuschagne

Ever since he came in as a concussion substitute to replace Steve Smith in the Lord’s Test in August 2019, the South African-born Australian batsman Marnus Labuschagne has had a dream run in Test cricket – in a span of about four and a half months, he has aggregated 1249 runs in nine Tests and 15 innings at an average of 83.27, with four hundreds and seven fifties – almost Bradmanesque! The next best run aggregate during this period has been teammate David Warner with 871 runs in 16 innings. At the end of the Sydney Test, Labuschagne’s Test run tally now stands at 1459 runs after 23 innings. In Test cricket history, only four other batsmen have made more runs than him after their first 23 innings. The graphs below have the details. 

Anderson marches on

There’s no stopping James Anderson even at the age of 37. The England bowler recently became the first full-time pace bowler to appear in 150 Test matches. After more than 16 years in the Test circuit, he is still firing. His recent five-wicket haul at Newlands has taken his tally of wickets to over 100 since turning 35. This makes him only the fourth pacer in Test cricket history to take 100 or more wickets after the age of 35. The only other Englishman who makes this list is Sydney Barnes and that was over 100 years ago, when cricket was played at a leisurely pace. The graphs below have the details.

Meanwhile, Jimmy Anderson’s five-wicket haul at Cape Town also makes him one of the oldest pace bowlers this millennium to achieve this feat in Tests. Since the year 2000, only four pacers have claimed five-wicket hauls after the age of 37, with West Indian Courtney Walsh doing so on five occasions!

Anderson, at Cape Town, also became the fourth oldest England pace bowler to take a five-wicket haul. Interestingly, Anderson is the oldest England pacer since Freddie Brown in February 1951, nearly 69 years ago!

Note: Barnes has 16 five-wicket hauls after the age of 37. Only his five-wicket haul as the oldest is listed above.

The nine who held the title – leading run-getter in T20Is

Ever since Rohit Sharma became the leading run-getter in T20 international cricket in February 2019 in Auckland, it has been a two-horse race for this title between Rohit and Virat Kohli. The record between these two have now changed hands on six occasions, until they both finished on the same tally after the Mumbai T20I against the West Indies last month. Rohit's absence in the ongoing series allowed Kohli to forge ahead in the Indore T20I. The image below has details of the nine batsmen who at one point were the highest run-scorers in T20Is.

A new member to the six sixes club

Earlier this week, Kiwi batsman Leo Carter hit six sixes in an over against Anton Devcich at the Hagley Oval in Christchurch. In any form of cricket, this is considered a rare feat. In domestic and international matches across formats, this has occurred only on seven occasions. 

Notes: 

- Alex Hales (Notts Outlaws) hit six sixes off consecutive balls off two bowlers - Birmingham Bear’s Boyd Rankin and Ateeq Javid at Nottingham in 2015 in successive overs.

- Yuvraj Singh is the only one in the above list to do so against a pace bowler (Stuart Broad). The rest of the bowlers were left-arm spinners.

(all records mentioned above are for men's cricket and are complete and updated until 7 January 2020)