Strauss to get most test 100s for an England player?

He's got 17 now in 68 tests, one less than Gower got in 100-odd, and just five less than Wally Hammond. He has a better 50:100 conversion rate than Vaughan or KP.

It'll be harder against the Aussies this northern summer, but I bet he'll get a couple more in the Ashes and in any event be past Hammond by end-2011.

Easy Rob - let's not woof the poor bugger.

Pietersen or Strauss.

Rob I wrote:He's got 17 now in 68 tests, one less than Gower got in 100-odd, and just five less than Wally Hammond. He has a better 50:100 conversion rate than Vaughan or KP.

It'll be harder against the Aussies this northern summer, but I bet he'll get a couple more in the Ashes and in any event be past Hammond by end-2011.

60 Tests in fact.

He currently has the highest centuries/test rate (0.283) of ANY Englishman with 17 or more test hundreds.

Only Sutcliffe (16/54 - 0.296) and Pietersen (15/50 - 0.30) have narrowly better rates of those with 10 or more Test hundreds.

We shouldn't get carried away as Merls says, but it's an extraordinary stat and turnaround for a bloke who looked completely washed up as a Test batsman this time last year.

The England Test record for centuries is surprisingly low at 22. Strauss and KP should simply be in a race for who gets there first. (Although there is another non-retired English player who is still one ahead of him, in case you've forgotten...)

Has any batsman had such a rollercoaster career as Strauss, statistically at least? Certainly looking like a "game of three halves" at the moment!

It's KP's all the way.

Unless he has a huge girly strop and goes off to play for someone else.

Rob I wrote:Unless he has a huge girly strop and goes off to play for someone else.

I think he'd have to wait 4 or 5 years to re-qualify for South Africa wouldn't he? Would take out the remainder of his peak years, unless he was happy to just go round playing Twenty20 for whatever money was available! The ECB would never let it happen in any case.

beamer wrote:

Rob I wrote:Unless he has a huge girly strop and goes off to play for someone else.

I think he'd have to wait 4 or 5 years to re-qualify for South Africa wouldn't he?

You're instantly available to play for your nation of birth, whoever else you play for. Remember Kepler Wessels.

Rob I wrote:

beamer wrote:

Rob I wrote:Unless he has a huge girly strop and goes off to play for someone else.

I think he'd have to wait 4 or 5 years to re-qualify for South Africa wouldn't he?

You're instantly available to play for your nation of birth, whoever else you play for. Remember Kepler Wessels.

Nah don't think that's true at all. Wessels had lived back in SA hadn't he for a few years and hadn't represented Aus for a fair while...

Yeah, there is some sort of qualification period AFAIR, just can't remember what.

It will be KP, though Strauss could get there first. KP's got 15 in 50 and seems to have less peaks and troughs than Strauss. It's pretty feasible that Pietersen will get over 30 tons, going at the rate he has, assuming nothing devastating happens.