The Expert replies: Which family has given most brothers to Test cricket?

If you have a question relating to cricket and did not know who to ask, bounce them off to Rajneesh Gupta. Each week he will pick questions readers send him and provide answers. Your queries should be addressed to: Ask Rajneesh on Facebook or askrajneesh@rediffmail.com

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

This distinction goes to Pakistan's Mohammad family. Four of them -- Hanif, Mushtaq, Sadiq and Wazir -- went on to represent Pakistan in Test cricket. Another brother -- Raees -- was unlucky to miss out, although he played first-class cricket for 15 years.

There are seven other instances of three brothers playing Test cricket. They are listed hereunder (in chronological order):

GRACE - Edward, WG & Frederick (England)

HEARNE - Frank, Alec & George (England)

TANCRED - Augustus, Vincent & Louis (South Africa)

CHAPPELL - Ian, Greig & Trevor (Australia)

RANATUNGA - Dammika, Arjuna & Sanjeeva (Sri Lanka)

ELAHI - Manzoor, Zahoor & Salim (Pakistan)

AKMAL - Kamran, Adnan & Umar (Pakistan)

Note:

Frank Hearne also played for South Africa.

All three Grace brothers played against England at the Oval in 1880.

All Hearne brothers played in the match between South Africa and England at Cape Town in 1891-92 (Alec and George for Engl#8743 and Frank for South Africa).

Hanif, Mushtaq and Sadiq played together against New Zealand at Karachi in 1969-70.

Previous column:

Ask the Expert: How many times was Gavaskar LBW in Tests?

How many players have played with or against Sachin Tendulkar in his career in Tests and ODIs? Please give a break-up of Indians and the rest. - Ramakrishnan

In Test cricket, Tendulkar has played with/against 567 players, which includes 103 Indians. The break-up from other countries is: 70 from England, 61 from Australia, 61 from New Zealand, 54 from Sri Lanka,50 from Pakistan, 50 from South Africa, 44 from West Indies,38 from Zimbabwe and 36 from Bangladesh.

In ODIs, Tendulkar has played with/against 842 players. The tally includes 119 Indian and 723 overseas players. The list of overseas players consists of 79 players from England, 76 from Pakistan, 76 from Sri Lanka, 72 from Australia, 72 from West Indies, 69 from South Africa, 67 from New Zealand, 54 from Bangladesh, 53 from Zimbabwe, 23 from Kenya, 22 from UAE, 21 from Netherlands, 17 from Ireland, 11 from Bermuda and 11 from Namibia.

R Ashwin scored a hundred and took a five-for in his debut Test series. How many cricketers have done this before him? - Arjun Budhraja

Ravichandran Ashwin had a dream Test debut, as he returned figures of 3 for 81 and 6 for 47 in the Delhi Test against the West Indies. He then scored 103 in the first innings of the third Test at Mumbai, while batting at number 8.

Ashwin is one of the five cricketers who have performed the feat of scoring a hundred and taking a five-for in their debut Test series. The first to achieve the feat was England's Len Braund. Making his Test debut against Australia at Sydney in 1901-02, Braund returned figures of 5 for 61 in the second innings. He followed it up with a maiden Test hundred (103) in the third match of the series at Adelaide.

Australia's Jack Gregory was the second player to accomplish the feat. He made his Test debut against England in 1920-21. In his only second Test at Melbourne, Gregory scored 100 off just 115 balls while batting at # 9. He then took 7 wickets in England's first innings of the same Test. New Zealand's Bruce Taylor was the third player to shine with bat and ball in his debut series. Taylor, in fact, scored his hundred and took his five-for on Test debut – a feat unparalleled in Test chronicles - versus India at Calcutta in 1964-65.

Taylor scored 106 and then followed it up with figures of 5-86 in India's first innings.

Can you please provide a list of batsman who have carried their bat in a complete ODI innings (played full 50 overs) with details of balls faced and 4s & 6s hit? - Sanjeev Dhingra

There are more than 50 instances of a batsman opening the innings and remaining unbeaten after playing full 50 overs or more. It is not possible to give the complete list here. However, the players who faced most balls while carrying the bat are listed below:

+ batted for full 60 overs

# batted for full 55 overs

As far as I know, Eknath Solkar had made a catching record when he used to field at forward short-leg. The record was 25 Tests and 52 catches, which is more than two catches per Test. Has this record been broken? If so, by who? - Bharat Talwar

Eknath Solkar actually took 53 catches in 27 Tests, which gives a figure of 1.96 catches per Test. Among all players who have taken at least 50 catches in the field, Solkar's catch per match ratio is the best. New Zealand's Ross Taylor comes next with 1.82 (60 catches in 33 Tests), followed by Australia's Bob Simpson (1.77; 110 in 62), New Zealand's Bryan Young (1.54; 54 in 35), Stephen Fleming (1.54; 171 in 111), Australia's Mark Taylor (1.51; 157 in 104) and England's Tony Greig (1.50 ; 87 in 58).

After how many years of starting to play Test cricket did international teams get their first win - Khursheed Zamir

The following table gives details of each Test-playing country's maiden wins:

Navjot Sidhu and Gautam Gambhir have nine Test hundreds against their name, out of which four were for the winning cause (won%-44.44).

Which bowler is the quickest in terms of Tests to get a hat-trick? What is the similar stat for ODIs and T20Is - Manoj Singh

Three bowlers have taken a hat-trick in their very first Test. They are: England's Maurice Allom (v New Zealand, Christchurch, 1929-30), New Zealand's Peter Petherick (v Pakistan, Lahore, 1976-77) and Australia's Damien Fleming (v Pakistan, Rawalpindi, 1994-95). Sri Lanka's Nuwan Zoysa (v Zimbabwe,Harare,1999-00) took a hat-trick off his first three balls in the match, whereas India's Irfan Pathan (v Pakistan, Karachi, 2005-06) took a hat-trick off last three balls of his first over. Zoysa's over was the second over of the match, while Irfan's over was also the first over of the match.

Pakistan's Jalaluddin is the quickest to claim a hat-trick in One-Day Internationals. He did so in only his second match (v Australia, Hyderabad, 1982-83). This, incidentally, was the first hat-tricks in this format of the game.

Australia's Anthony Stuart (v Pakistan, Melbourne, 1996-97) and Pakistan's Mohammad Sami (v West Indies, Sharjah, 2001-02) did so in their third and sixth matches respectively. Chaminda Vaas holds the record of being the quickest in terms of balls bowled in a match. In 2003 World Cup Vaas decimated Bangladesh with figures of 6 for 25, which also included a hat-trick completed off the first three balls of the match.

Three hat-tricks have been recorded in Twenty20 internationals so far. Australia's Brett Lee holds the record of being the quickest in terms of matches, doing so in his sixth match (v Bangladesh, Cape Town, 2007-08). New Zealand's Tim Southee and Jacob Oram performed the hat-trick in their 17th and 19th matches respectively.