Kohli's struggles and Cook's Edgbaston epic - England v India in Opta numbers

Birmingham, Aug 1: Wednesday sees the start of England's five-Test series with India, as Joe Root's men take on Virat Kohli's number-one ranked side.

England will be seeking revenge after a 4-0 hammering in India the last time the sides met in the format two years ago.

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The white-ball contests earlier in the tour were much closer contests, India prevailing 2-1 in the Twenty20 encounters before the home side triumphed by the same scoreline in the one-dayers.

For the purists, the longest form of the game is regarded as the pinnacle and, with the help of Opta, we've crunched the numbers ahead of the first Test at Edgbaston - the opening act of what promises to be a compelling six weeks of international cricket.

1,000 - This will be England’s 1,000th Test match - more than any other side. They have won 357 of the 999 they have participated in to date (D345 L297).

3 - India have only tasted defeat three times in their last 33 Tests, compared to 23 wins over the same stretch of matches.

0 - India have taken on England six times before at Edgbaston in Test cricket; they have never recorded victory there, losing five of those six encounters.

294 - Alastair Cook's highest Test score came at Edgbaston, when England last faced India at the venue (in 2011 - making 294 off 545 balls). He is 144 runs away from becoming the first batsman to post 1,000 Test runs at Edgbaston.

24 - James Anderson (540) requires 24 more wickets to overtake Glenn McGrath (563) as the seamer with the most scalps in Test cricket.

14 - Anderson is 14 away from being only the second man to take 100 Test wickets versus India; 20 will see him go top in the all-time list (above Muttiah Muralitharan, 105).

13.4 - Virat Kohli has played one Test series in England before, managing to score 134 runs across 10 innings at an average of just 13.4 in 2014; this is the lowest rate he's managed in a country.

10 - Anderson (86) is 10 scalps away from becoming the all-time leading wicket-taker in Tests between England and India (Bhagwath Chandrasekhar, 95). He has the best average of anyone to take 50+ Test wickets since the start of 2017 (19.1).

256 - Cook needs 256 more runs to go above Kumar Sangakkara into fifth place on the all-time list of leading Test run-scorers.

100 - Anderson needs six scalps to become the first bowler to take 100 Test wickets at Lord's; he'd become only the second player to claim that many at a single venue (Muralitharan at three different grounds).

2 - Ben Stokes is set to reach 100 Test wickets; he's taken 98 to date.