Benedict Bermange looks at England's opening stands and Virender Sehwag's stats in his Test preview.
Benedict's back with some third Test stats...
After storming to victory at Trent Bridge, England can wrap up their Test series against India at Edgbaston over the next five days.
But how good is the home side's record in Birmingham? How effective is England's opening partnership in this series? How do Ravi Bopara's statistics stack up to Virender Sehwag's?
Sky Sports' Benedict Bermange is back to bring you the answers to these questions and much more as Andrew Strauss' men pursue the World No 1 spot in Test cricket...
England won at Nottingham by 319 runs despite conceding a
first-innings lead. This was the largest margin of victory by a team trailing on first innings:
| Margin | Team 1 | Beat Team 2 | Venue | Year |
| 319 runs | Eng (221 & 544) | India (288 & 158) | Nottingham
| 2011 |
| 289 runs | Eng (280 & 436) | Australia (302 & 125) | The Oval | 1926 |
| 245 runs | Aus (285 & 506) | England (363 & 183) | Adelaide | 1907-08 |
In contrast to Nottingham, England's record at
Edgbaston is their best of all their regularly-used home venues:
| Venue | Mat | Won | Lost | Draw | W/L |
| Birmingham | 45 | 23 | 8 | 14 | 2.87 |
| The Oval | 93 | 38 | 19 | 36 | 2.00 |
| Manchester | 73 | 25 | 14 | 34 | 1.78 |
| Lord's | 121 | 47 | 27 | 47 | 1.74 |
| Leeds | 69 | 30 | 22 | 17 | 1.36 |
| Nottingham | 56 | 19 | 16 | 21 | 1.19 |
India welcome back their
most prolific opening partnership:
| Bat 1 | Bat 2 | Inns | Unb | Runs | Best | Avge | 100 | 50 |
| V Sehwag | G Gambhir | 63 | 3 | 3,551 | 233 | 59.18 | 10 | 19 |
| SM Gavaskar | CPS Chauhan | 59 | 3 | 3,010 | 213 | 53.75 | 10 | 10 |
| SM Gavaskar | AD Gaekwad | 49 | 1 | 1,722 | 176 | 35.87 | 4 | 9 |
England's opening partnerships this series have been 19, 23, 7 and 6 for total of 55 runs at an average of 13.75.
Andrew Strauss has not passed fifty in eight Test innings this summer and has one century in his last 22 Tests.
Alastair Cook averages 5.00 with a highest score of 12 in the series so far.
Matt Prior and MS Dhoni have both played six Tests in 2011, but with very different results with the bat:
| Name | M | Inns | No | Runs | HS | Avge | SR | 100 | 50 |
| Matt Prior | 6 | 8 | 1 | 496 | 126 | 70.85 | 91.51 | 3 | 2 |
| MS Dhoni | 6 | 10 | 0 | 146 | 74 | 14.60 | 42.56 | 0 | 1 |
Ravi Bopara is the epitome of the "streaky" batsman.
The Essex all-rounder averaged 8.40 in his first three Tests and 15.00 in his most recent four Tests, but in the three inbetween he averaged an impressive 118.33.
Virender Sehwag's batting average is appreciably better in Asia than outside:
| Continent | M | Inns | No | Runs | HS | Avg Bat | SR | 100 | 50 |
| Asia | 57 | 96 | 5 | 5,603 | 319 | 61.57 | 84.28 | 17 | 21 |
| Outside Asia | 30 | 54 | 1 | 2,091 | 195 | 39.45 | 76.14 | 5 | 6 |
Tim Bresnan has won his first eight Tests. Here are the best starts to Test careers in terms of most wins from the start:
| Player | Team | Years | Matches |
| Adam Gilchrist | Aus | 1999-2001 | 15 |
| Stuart Clark | Aus | 2006-2008 | 13 |
| Brett Lee | Aus | 1999-2001 | 10 |
| Thilan Samaraweera | SL | 2001-2002 | 10 |
