Benedict Bermange has all the stats as England and Sri Lanka battle for world ranking points.
Benedict will bring you the best stats throughout the summer
If England win their series against Sri Lanka 3-0 they will move ahead of South Africa into second place in the ICC Test Championship.
Otherwise, whoever wins the series will occupy third place - and if the series is drawn, the teams will remain where they are (England in third and Sri Lanka in fourth).
It has been three years since Sri Lanka played
a full Test series outside the subcontinent and their last series win outside Asia (exluding in Zimbabwe) was in New Zealand in 1995.
In their history, Sri Lanka have performed significantly better in Asia than outside:
| Where | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Won/Lost |
| Asia | 144 | 53 | 49 |
42 | 1.262 |
| Elsewhere | 54 | 8 | 18 |
28 | 0.286 |
| Total | 198 | 61 | 67 |
70 | 0.871 |
Sri Lankan bowlers have taken a total of 132 five-wicket hauls in Test cricket. Their two recently-retired bowlers were responsible for 79 of these or 60% (Murali 67 and Chaminda Vaas 12).
Since Murali's Test debut, Sri Lanka have played
12 away Tests without him, of which they have won just one (against Pakistan at Faisalabad in 2004), lost five and drawn six.
Since 1982 when they played their first Test, Sri Lanka's batsmen have the best ratio of Tests per double-century of all the Test-playing nations. England are bottom:
| Country | Tests | 200+ | Tests/200 |
| Sri Lanka | 198 | 29 | 6.83 |
| India | 253 | 30 | 8.43 |
| Pakistan | 241 | 24 | 10.04 |
| West Indies | 259 | 24 | 10.79 |
| South Africa | 186 | 16 | 11.63 |
| Australia | 308 | 24 | 12.83 |
| New Zealand | 219 | 11 | 19.91 |
| Zimbabwe | 83 | 4 | 20.75 |
| England | 330 | 15 | 22.00 |
Cardiff is England's
wettest home Test venue, with an average of 1,061mm of rain per year. Manchester receives just 810mm. The wettest in the world is Chittagong (2,911mm) and the
driest Sharjah (94mm) or - in a full Test nation - Bahawalpur (114mm).
Ajantha Mendis's first four Tests brought him 33 wickets at 18.36. His next 11 have brought 28 wickets at 47.92.
Graeme Swann is currently second in the ICC World Bowling Rankings
• The last England bowler to be No 1 was Steve Harmison in December 2004
• The last England spinner to be No 1 was Derek Underwood in March 1975
• The last England off-spinner to be No 1 was Jim Laker in February 1959
Stuart Broad needs one wicket to become the 44th England bowler to take 100 Test wickets.
At 24 years 336 days old on Day one, he will be the second-youngest, behind only Ian Botham, who was 23 years 251 days.
Even with a duck in his most recent innings at Sydney,
Jonathan Trott's Test batting average currently stands at 61.53. The only player to have scored more Test runs at a better average is Don Bradman (6996 at 99.94).
Since the start of the 2009 Ashes, in the matches when England have played just four bowlers, their
"fifth" bowler has bowled just four percent of their total overs. So - in a full day's play of 90 overs, if this rate were to be continued, the fifth bowler would bowl 3.4 overs.
Chanaka Welegedara is the first Test cricketer with six initials. The England Test record is four (VPFA Royle and JWHT Douglas). The most initials to play first-class cricket in England is seven: John Elicius Benedict Bernard Placid Quirk Carrington (JEBBPWC) Dwyer who played for Sussex from 1904 to 1909, and the world record for first-class cricket is ten held by ARRAPWRRKB (Ranjith) Amunugama who played in Sri Lanka from 1989 and 2004 and also for Gore Court in the Kent Premier League in 2004.
