New Zealand's experience drain and Marnus Labuschagne's dream run
A look at the standout numbers from the first day of the SCG Test
Gaurav Sundararaman03-Jan-2020215 – The biggest difference in terms of Test-match experience between consecutive XIs for New Zealand. Before today, it was 164 matches, in October 1990. In this Test, they lost a total experience of 215 matches, as the count plummeted from 540 Test caps in Melbourne to 325 in Sydney.It was the first time since December 2009, against Pakistan in Wellington, that New Zealand went into a Test without either Kane Williamson or Tim Southee or Trent Boult. Add to that Mitchell Santner and Henry Nicholls, and that’s a net loss of 267 Test caps, 11,108 runs, and 594 wickets.ESPNcricinfo Ltd
5 – Batsmen – after Marnus Labuschagne’s latest century – who have scored at least four Test centuries in their first 14 Tests and gone on to score more than 7000 career Test runs. Don Bradman misses out, obviously, since he finished his career with 6996 runs after scoring eight centuries in his first 14 Tests. Mark Taylor scored six within that period, while Sunil Gavaskar, Andrew Strauss and Wally Hammond scored five each.
85.16 – Labuschagne’s first-innings average in Test cricket. Labuschagne has scored 1022 runs from 13 innings with four centuries and four other fifty-plus scores. In the current home season, Labuschagne has so far scored 752 runs from seven innings. Only ten batsmen have topped 700 runs in a home season for Australia.34.13 – Steven Smith’s strike rate so far – the lowest in a series in his career. Although Smith has scored 214 runs at 42.8 with two fifty-plus scores, he has struggled, even taking 39 balls to get his first run in this innings.In fact, Smith’s strike rate of 36.23 this season is the lowest at home by an Australian batsman since 2000. Smith has not scored a century in ten innings. This is the first time he has had such a long barren stretch since his first Test century in his 23rd Test innings.ESPNcricinfo Ltd4 – Times Neil Wagner has dismissed David Warner in this series. Wagner has dismissed Warner five times in his career. Only four bowlers have dismissed Warner more often. In fact, barring the seven times he was dismissed by Stuart Broad in the 2019 Ashes, Warner hasn’t been dismissed more often by a single bowler in a series. Four bowlers – Kagiso Rabada, Broad, Moeen Ali and Wagner – have dismissed him four times in a series. Wagner has also sent back Smith four times this series.12 – Wickets taken by Southee in the first Two Tests of the series. However, he was rested from the third Test. Southee averaged 25.75 and took two four-wicket hauls in the first Two Tests. With crucial points at stake in the World Test Championship, it will be interesting to see if New Zealand rue the decision.