Record breakers! The stats behind England's startling Test rise under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum
England have become a six-hitting and wicket-taking machine under the leadership of Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum, with a record chases, a 40-year-old topping the bowling rankings and Harry Brook racing toward 1,000 runs - watch The Ashes live on Sky Sports from Friday
Monday 12 June 2023 15:16, UK
Ahead of The Ashes, Sky Sports Cricket's Benedict Bermange looks at the stats behind England's startling Test rise under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum...
It has been a year since England pressed the 'red-ball reset' button and gambled on the combination of Rob Key, Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum to mastermind their turnaround.
This was a Test team who were coming off a series defeat in the Caribbean, which their talismanic opening partnership of James Anderson and Stuart Broad had the luxury of watching from home. In all, the team had only won once in their last 17 matches, and so in many respects, what was there to lose?
- Ben Stokes pictured bowling full speed as he vows 'no fear' Ashes approach
- Steve Smith warns England over Bazball: 'They haven't played us yet!'
- The Ashes: Dates and venues for 2023 series | Get Sky Sports
In his interview after having been appointed, Stokes said that England "won't be drawing many games" and he has been proved correct with none of the 13 Tests he has presided over as full-time Test captain ending in a stalemate.
The Ashes - Live
Even the loss of two whole days play at The Kia Oval last year didn't matter! With the current approach, their all-time record of 22 successive draw-less Tests, which has stood since 1884-1892, might be under threat.
Despite their poor start to 2022, with the last two Ashes Tests and the three Tests in the Caribbean, England still ended 2022 with the highest run-rate of any team in Test history in a calendar year, pushing the juggernaut Australian team of the early 2000s into second and third place.
England struck 22 centuries over the course of the year, breaking the national record of 20 set in 2004.
On the first day against Pakistan at Rawalpindi, for the first time in Test history, four players from the same team scored Test centuries on the same day, and all four featured in the fastest 20 centuries ever to have been scored for England at the time.
Having set an England record by striking six fours from one over from Saud Shakeel in the first innings at Rawalpindi, Harry Brook bettered it by hitting 27 from an over from Zahid Mahmood in the second innings.
With 818 runs from just 826 balls so far, Brook is well on target to set a new record for the fastest first 1,000 Test runs. The record is currently held by New Zealand's Tim Southee, who took 1,132 balls, just ahead of his team-mate Colin de Grandhomme, who took 1,136 balls.
Unsurprisingly, England as a team set a new record for the most sixes by any team in a calendar year in Test cricket:
They have started 2023 in even better form, having scored at 5.10 per over in their three Tests to date - two in New Zealand and the recent victory over Ireland at Lord's, so they could be on target to set another new mark.
Ben Duckett removed Donald Bradman from the record books by scoring the fastest-ever Lord's 150 and Ollie Pope surpassed Sir Ian Botham's 1982 effort and scored the fastest double-century by anyone on English soil.
With an increasing willingness to bowl first, the past year has seen England set new records for chasing fourth innings targets. At Edgbaston, they set a new national record by scoring 378-3 to beat India, and since the dual appointment of Stokes and McCullum, they have also made their sixth, eighth and 13th-highest successful fourth-innings chase, all in successive matches last summer.
Inspired by their new brand of Test cricket, other records have fallen. The Trent Bridge Test last year was the first in Test history to have more than a thousand runs scored in boundaries and Jonny Bairstow came within a delivery of equalling Gilbert Jessop's England-record 76-ball century, which was set all the way back in 1902.
But it hasn't been just about the batting.
Under McCullum and Stokes, England's bowlers have taken all 20 wickets in 12 of the 13 Tests, with the sole exception being the Lord's Test last year which they lost by an innings.
At least on that occasion they did manage to bowl South Africa out for 326, thereby maintaining their streak of having taken all 10 wickets in every innings in which they have bowled in the past year.
Restored to the team after the tour of the Caribbean, Anderson became the first 40-year-old specialist seamer to play for England since Les Jackson in 1961 and the oldest bowler since Clarrie Grimmett in 1936 to top the ICC Test bowling rankings.
Among post-war England bowlers, only Derek Underwood, Frank Tyson and Botham have taken more wickets at a better average than Ollie Robinson, despite his well-publicised fitness struggles in Australia.
There was also Stokes' well-known faith in Jack Leach.
You have to go back to 1974 to find an England spinner to have bowled more overs on the first day of a home Test than Leach's 30 on the first day against New Zealand at Headingley. The bowler on that occasion was Underwood, who sent down 36 overs as Pakistan made 317-2 at The Oval.
So it has been a breath-taking start to the McCullum-Stokes axis, but the real test will come this summer when they take on the Australians, hoping to continue where they have left off.
Watch The Ashes live on Sky Sports Cricket or through NOW from Friday. Coverage begins at 9.30am ahead of the first ball at 11am. You can also follow in-play clips and text commentary across Sky Sports' digital platforms.
