A couple of recent stats pieces, on playing XIs and legendary pairs who made their debuts in the same match, drew questions from readers on players who have played most matches together and other related queries. We've answered them in this week's Did You Know.
146 Number of Tests Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid played together for India, which is the most by a pair. Jacques Kallis and Mark Boucher are next on the list with 137 appearances together. Seventeen other pairs have played over 100 Tests together, including James Anderson and Stuart Broad who have appeared in 116 Tests together so far. Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath with 104 Tests together are the only other pair of specialist bowlers to play over 100 Tests. Australia, England, India, South Africa and Sri Lanka have had at least one pair to play over 100 matches together.
86 The most consecutive Tests played by a pair for a team - Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist, between 2000 and 2008. No other pair has played 70 matches in a row. Sunil Gavaskar and Gundappa Viswanath appeared in 69 Tests together, the second most, followed by AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla with 68 Tests in a row from 2006 to 2013.
113 Number of Tests played by Sourav Ganguly in his career, every one of which featured Dravid. Ganguly's is the only career of over 100 Tests that had at least one player taking part in all their matches. Next on the list is Syed Kirmani, who played all his 88 Tests with Gavaskar, followed by Matt Prior's 79 Tests with Alastair Cook and Michael Slater's 74 matches with Mark Waugh.
118 Tests played together by the trio of Tendulkar, Dravid, and VVS Laxman - the most by a combination of three players. They are followed by Cook, Anderson, and Broad, who have played 111 Tests together. The next non-Indian trio to have appeared in most games together are Steve Waugh, Mark Waugh and Warne, with 92 Tests.
3 Number of trios to have played over 50 consecutive Tests together for a team. David Warner, Steven Smith, and Nathan Lyon played 55 Tests in a row for Australia from 2013 to 2018, the most by a trio. Hayden, Justin Langer, and Gilchrist are next with 53 consecutive appearances from 2001 to 2005. The other trio to play 50-plus matches together in a row is Tendulkar, Mohammad Azharuddin, and Anil Kumble, between 1992 and 1999.
86 The record for the most Tests played by a combination of four players together is also held by veteran Indian players. Tendulkar, Dravid, Kumble and Ganguly played 86 matches together.
65 The most Tests played by a combination of five players for a team - Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman, Ganguly, and Kumble. India won 19 of those 65 Tests, lost 21 and drew 25. West Indies' famous five - Viv Richards, Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Haynes, Jeff Dujon, and Malcolm Marshall - played 58 Tests together and won 35 of them, lost just six matches and drew 17.
11 The most Tests played by a combination of 11 players, which is by the West Indies XI led by Viv Richards in the 1980s. The above mentioned five West Indies players were all part of that XI, which also included Richie Richardson, Carl Hooper, Gus Logie, Courtney Walsh, Curtly Ambrose, and Patrick Patterson.
602 The number of different players Tendulkar played with or against in his Test career - 110 team-mates and 492 opponents - the most by a player. Shivnarine Chanderpaul is next with 531 players followed by Muttiah Muralitharan with 486.
113 Number of team-mates Graham Gooch played with in his career of 118 Tests, which is the most for a player. Frank Woolley, who played with 111 team-mates in his 64-match career, is second on the list. Tendulkar (110), Wally Hammond (106) and Chanderpaul (105) are the others to have played with more than a hundred different team-mates.