Test captain to score a triple-century

The first captain to score 300 runs in a Test was Australian Bob Simpson who produced a brilliant inning of 311 at Old Trafford in 1964. After that there have been seven further triples by Test captains:

• ·        Graham Gooch's 333 for England v India at Lord's in 1990.
• ·        Mark Taylor's 334 not out for Australia v Pakistan in Peshawar in 1998-99.
• ·        Brian Lara's 400 not out for West Indies v England in St John's in 2003-04.
• ·        Mahela Jayawardene's 374 for Sri Lanka v South Africa in Colombo in 2006.
• ·        Younis Khan's 313 for Pakistan v Sri Lanka in Karachi in 2008-09.
• ·        Michael Clarke's 329 not out for Australia v India in Sydney in 2011-12.
• ·        Brendon McCullum's 302 for New Zealand v India in Wellington 2013-14.

Bob Simpson the first Test captain to make a triple-hundred, at Old Trafford in 1964 John Dawson  © PA Photos

Cricketers have played Tests for England and Australia against each other?

There's only one player who has played both for England against Australia and for Australia against England and it was an awfully long time ago, when the qualification rules were bit more elastic. Billy Midwinter was born in Gloucestershire in 1851, but he was taken to Australia at the age of 9. He played for Australia in the very first Test of all, at Melbourne in March 1877. He was very handy all-rounder but he returned to England later that year, and played for Gloucestershire. When an Australian team toured England in 1878 and he played a few games for them - until in a famous incident he was more or less kidnapped by WG Grace, Gloucestershire's captain, and ‘persuaded’ to turn out for the county. In 1881-82 Billy Midwinter was part of Alfred Shaw's privately raised team which toured Australia, and played in 4 games now considered Tests  before resuming his Australian connections and playing 6 more Tests for them, in 1882-83, 1884 (in England) and 1886-87. Overall Billy Midwinter appeared in 12 Tests, scoring 269 runs at 13.45 and taking 24 wickets at 25.20, with a best return of 5 for 78 in the very first Test of all, at the MCG in 1876-77.

1878 Australian Team and Billy Midwinter sitting in the middle

Billy Midwinter

Wicketkeepers had Scored One-Day International Century for England.

One-day centuries by England wicketkeepers are rare one, when Jos Buttler with his excellent know of 121 at Lord's on May 31 2014 was actually the second man to score one. The only other England keeper to reach three figures in an ODI was Alec Stewart, who did it four times including twice in three days in 2000, against Zimbabwe at Edgbaston and West Indies at Trent Bridge. The other hundreds came against Pakistan at The Oval in 1992, and India in Sharjah in 1997. Jos Buttler century took him only 61 balls, the fastest for England in ODIs, beating the Kevin Pietersen 69 balls hundred against South Africa in East London in Feb 2005.

Both Wicketkeepers scored a century in the same One day international

The match at Lord's on May 31 2014, when Kumar Sangakkara made 112 for Sri Lanka and Jos Buttler replied with brilliant 121 for England actually provided 5th instance of both wicketkeepers scoring hundreds in the same one-day international. Kumar Sangakkara was involved in two of those as well:

1. Against India in Jaipur in October 2005, Kumar Sangakkara made 138 not out and MS Dhoni 183 not out
2. Then against South Africa in Johannesburg in January 2012 Kumar Sangakkara scored 102 and AB de Villiers 125 not out.
3. In Harare in August 2007 de Villiers made 107 for South Africa and Tatenda Taibu 107 not out for Zimbabwe,
4. In a World Cup qualifier in Lincoln in New Zealand Wesley Barresi of the Netherlands smacked 137 not out and Irfan Karim 108 for Kenya.
   

Joe Root England’s Fourth Youngest Double Centurion

Joe Root is fourth on the list of youngest man to score a double century for England.  The other three batsmen have scored double-centuries for England at a younger age than 23-year-old Joe Root, who made 200 not out against Sri Lanka at Lord's: Len Hutton scored 364 runs v Australia at The Oval in 1938, David Gower scored 200 not out against India at Edgbaston in 1979 and Bill Edrich scored 219 v South Africa in Durban in 1938-39 were all at 22. The only younger batsmen to make Test double-centuries at Lord's were Don Bradman, who was just 21 when he made his superb 254 the innings he rated the best of all his many masterpieces - for Australia against England in 1930, and Graeme Smith, who was 22 when he hit 259 for South Africa in 2003.