The cricket expert plays your deliveries

Have a question relating to cricket and did not know who to ask? Now you can bounce your statistical queries off Rediff's resident expert.

Each week, Rajneesh Gupta will pick ten cricket-related questions readers send him and provide answers. Your queries should be addressed to: Ask Rajneesh on Facebook

Rajneesh's answers some questions he received from readers last week:

Which was the most experienced side (in terms of match-aggregate) to play a Test? Where does current Indian team stand in this list? - Sanjeev Arora

When an ICC World XI played Australia in the Super Test at Sydney in October 2005, the combined match aggregate of all the players appearing for the World XI was 818. This was the first time that the combined match aggregate of a playing eleven crossed 800.

This figure has been bettered four times since then -- India being involved in all of them! The current record is of 861 matches, which was made when India played Australia at Bangalore in October 2008. The number of Tests played by each player in that team was: Sachin Tendulkar (151), Anil Kumble (131), Rahul Dravid (126), Sourav Ganguly (110), VVS Laxman (97),Harbhajan Singh (70), Virender Sehwag (61),Zaheer Khan (57), MS Dhoni (30), Gautam Gambhir (18) and Ishant Sharma (10).

The Indian team that played at Lord's had a combined aggregate of 784 matches, putting them at joint 14th place in the list. If, however, Virender Sehwag joins the Indian team in any of the remaining Tests, a new world record will be created provided there is no other change in the Indian eleven.

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Both England and India had left-handed opening pairs in the Lord's Test. When was the last time both sides had left-handers as openers in a Test? - Ajay Rawat

Two left-handed openers are not what you generally see in an Indian side. In fact, only once before did two left-handers opened the innings for India in a Test before Abhinav Mukund and Gautam Gambhir opened together at Lord's.

There was only one instance of two left-handers opening the batting together for India. It came in the second innings of the Delhi Test in 2005-06, when Irfan Pathan was promoted to open with Gambhir.

The last time both sides used left-handed openers was just last month -- between England and Sri Lanka at Southampton, when Andrew Strauss and Alistair Cook opened for England, and Sri Lanka opened with Tharanga Paranivitana and Lahiru Thirimanne.

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How many runs has Tendulkar scored when he captained? Also, please give his captaincy record in Tests and ODIs. - Sudesh Jadhav

Tendulkar's batting record under his own captaincy:

Tendulkar's win-loss record as captain:

Can you please provide a list of all-rounders who have a better batting average than their bowling average in ODIs (should have played at least 5 matches and scored more than 500 runs and at least 10 wickets) - Aswathi Pradeep

As many as 210 players have scored 500 runs and taken 10 wickets in ODIs, however only 37 have had a better batting average than the bowling average. Since it is not possible to list all of them, here are the top-10 players with the highest difference between batting and bowling averages.

When two batsmen are playing, and when they start for a run and both are in the middle, suddenly the batsman (striker) changes his mind and starts running back to crease and even runner follows him and both stand outside the batsman's crease when ball hits the stumps. Now, who is out? - Shirish Kulkarni

Whoever is nearest to that wicket when it is broken is run-out.

How many times has India won the first Test of a series against England in England? - Mandhir Bhatia

India have a dismal record in the first Test of a series against England in England. Before the Lord's Test, India won just one and lost 12 on 15 such previous occasions. The only win came in 1986, under Kapil Dev, when India beat England by five wickets at Lord's.

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Which country has made maximum scores of 300 and more in ODI cricket? I think it's India or Australia. Can you please confirm with the statistics. -
Vinney Divakaran

A total of 300 (or more) has been achieved on 391 occasions in ODIs. Australia have done this more often than any other country -- 64 times. They are closely followed by India, with 62 such instances.

Pakistan have made 300-plus totals on 53 occasions, followed by South Africa (45), Sri Lanka (38), New Zealand (32), West Indies (27), England (27), Zimbabwe (19), Ireland (5), Bangladesh (4), Netherlands (4), Kenya (3), Asia XI (3), Africa XI (2), Canada (1), ICC World XI (1) and Scotland (1).

How many players have scored a century in their first Test and last Test as captain? How many have done the same in ODIs? - Shyam Jansale

26 players have scored a century on captaincy debut in Test cricket, including Greg Chappell, who scored centuries in both innings of his debut Test as captain. However, only two of them managed to repeat the feat in their last Test in-charge of their sides. They are England's Kevin Pietersen and Alistair Cook.

Pietersen made his captaincy debut against South Africa at The Oval in 2008 and scored 100. The Mohali Test against India was his last as captain and he scored 144. Pietersen thus holds the distinction of scoring a hundred in his first and last innings as captain.

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Cook's case is even more interesting. He captained England in only two Tests and scored centuries in both of them -- against the same opponent (173 at Chittagong and 109* at Mirpur against Bangladesh in 2009-10). Like Pietersen, he also scored centuries in his first and last innings as captain.

Six players -- Glenn Turner, Richie Richardson, Sachin Tendulkar, Sanath Jayasuriya, Mike Hussey and Gavin Hamilton -- scored a century on captaincy debut in ODIs.

In addition Bermuda's Irvine Romain scored a century in his first innings as captain (having not batted in first match as captain). However, none of them managed to score a century in their last match as captain.

Can I have all my fielders inside the 30-yard circle in an ODI or T20 match at any point of the game? - Amit Garg

There are restrictions on minimum fielders to be positioned inside the circle. There are no restrictions on maximum fielders who can be placed inside the circle. So, a captain is free to place as many fielders inside the 30-yard circle as he likes.