The record of 100 or more differences in the player number of 2 players of the team will probably never be made again

* Jimmy Anderson’s Test debut (against Zimbabwe in May 2003) is the first English Test season when he is not available to play.

So, when the Test starts on June 20, who will be the most senior cricketer (in terms of Test career) in India’s playing XI? Is Karun Nair, who is expected to return to the Test team? Karun Nair made her Test cricket debut in Mohali in 2016/17 in Test cricket. However, it is expected that he will be the most senior Ravindra Jadeja, who started playing the first Test from him i.e. against England in Nagpur in 2012/13.

Among Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, Virat started playing Tests before him and ended the Test career after him. Virat’s last Test was in Sydney in Australia in January 2025. The first Test of this series in Perth will now be remembered as the Test in which player number 269 Virat Kohli and player number 316 Nitish Kumar Reddy played together for India. Harshit Rana also had a debut in the same Test but in the counting he counted the player number 315. Note the difference between the player number of Virat Kohli and Nitish Kumar Reddy. This is just 47 and it is much less than the records of the player number difference between two players of India.

You will be surprised to know that in this case, one of the two players in the Indian record is Rohit Sharma. When Rohit Sharma (India’s player number 280) made his debut against the West Indies at Eden Gardens in November 2013, he was also very senior Sachin Tendulkar in the team and he is India’s Test player number 187. In this way, there was a difference in the Test number of both of them 93 and this is India’s record till date. Virat’s Test career seems very long but in fact he played less than 14 years of Tests.

On the other hand, Jimmy Anderson (Player No. 613) made his debut in Lord’s in May 2003 and ended his Test career at Lord’s in July 2024 (against West Indies) after playing more than 21 years. The last England debutant to play with Anderson was JL Smith, who played in the same (England-West Indies, Lords 2024) Test which was Anderson’s last Test. Player number 715 is written on his cap and thus the difference of 102 was made in the player number.

With the increasing popularity of T20 cricket, the way Test careers are getting smaller, it seems very difficult to reach close to the record of 102 in Anderson’s player number. Gus Atkinson also made her debut in the same Test, but counts him player number 714 for England. Jimmy Anderson is the 8th player from England who played with a player number with more than 100 differences. Perhaps they are also the last. The 8 who are named in this list, all are from England. The rest 7:

1. Wilfred Rhodes (Player No. 121): He was still in the team when Herold Larvood (225) made his debut in 1926 (against Australia) at the Oval. He set a record of the biggest player number when he played against the West Indies in 1929–30 with Leslie Townsand (254). The difference of their player number is 131. Rhodes played Tests till the age of more than 52 years. The truth is that they played with 7 players with whom, the difference in their player number is 100 or more.

2. George Gun (Player No. 153): In 1907/08, he also played for England on Test debut against England in Sydney in 1907/08.

3. Frank Woi (Player No. 163): Test debut against Australia at The Oval in 1909.

4. Patci Hendraine (Player No. 181): In 1920/21, he also played for England on Test debut against England for Australia in 1920/21.

5. Freddy Brown (Player No. 261): Test debut against New Zealand at The Oval in 1931.

6. Brian Close (Cap No. 344): Test debut against New Zealand in Manchester in 1949. He played with 9 players with whom, the difference in their player number is 100 or more.

7. Graham Gooch (Cap No. 46): In 1975, played a Test debut against Australia in Birmingham and with 10 players with whom the difference in his player number is 100 or more. He played with Tests with Mark Ilot (561), Mark Lathwell (562), Martin McGig (563), Graham Thorp (564), Martin Biknell (565), Steve Rhodes (566), Craig White (567), Darren Goff (568), John Kroli (569) and Joy Benjamin (570).

No other cricketer played with any player that has a difference of 100 or more in the player number. The closest to this count reached Shivnarayan Chandrapaul (Cap No. 204) of West Indies and in May 2015, when played against England in Bridgetown, the team also had Shai Hope (302). This was Chandrapal’s 164th and last Test. Record for other other big test countries:

Player number difference

93 – India: Sachin Tendulkar (187) and Rohit Sharma (280) in 2013/14

87- Australia: Bob Simpson (209) and Trever Lolin (296) in 1977/78

75 – Sri Lanka: Arjun Ranatunga (9) and Kumar Sangakkara (84) in 2000

69 – Pakistan: Younis Khan (159) and Hasan Ali (228) in 2017

66 – Bangladesh: Mushfiqur Rahim (41) and Tanjim Hasan Saqib (107) in 2025

65 – New Zealand: Burt Satcliff (44) and Graham Vivian (109) in 1964/65; Daniel Vettori (200) and Mark Craig (265) in 2014/15

62 – South Africa: Dave Nors (50) and Fred Suskind (112) in 1924

56 – Zimbabwe: Brendon Taylor (64) and Witch Myrs (120) in 2021