Benedict has all the stats ahead of the first Test of the summer
To stay as the top-ranked Test team, England need to win the series against West Indies.
If they win by the narrowest margin (1-0 or 2-1) they will move to 115.92 compared to South Africa's 115.91. If they draw the series they will drop behind South Africa. If they lose the series, they will drop behind Australia (and possibly India too!).
England are undefeated in their last 12 Tests at Lord's since their defeat in the 2005 Ashes Test at the venue. If they avoid defeat in this match they will equal their longest unbeaten stretch at the venue:
Tests
Start
Finish
13
21 June 1962
22 July 1971
12
20 June 1974
10 June 1982
12
11 May 2006
21 July 2011
Here are England's longest unbeaten stretches at their other major home venues:
Venue
Tests
Start
Finish
Manchester
25
24 July 1905
22 July 1954
The Oval
18
11 August 1884
17 August 1929
Birmingham
16
29 May 1902
4 July 1974
Nottingham
9
11 June 1953
4 June 1964
Leeds
8
8 June 1967
14 August 1975
The all-time record is Pakistan's 34-match run at the National Stadium, Karachi between 1955 and 2000.
James Anderson may have played 68 Tests and be ranked number three in the world, but his Test bowling average has not been below 30 since July 2007 (after 36 Tests).
Tim Bresnan has won his first 11 Tests. Only two players have had better starts to their Test careers:
Player
Team
Years
Matches
Adam Gilchrist
Aus
1999-2001
15
Stuart Clark
Aus
2006-2008
13
Only one England off-spinner has taken more wickets than Graeme Swann's 182 - Jim Laker with 193. Swann is playing his 42nd Test and after 41 Tests Laker had taken 176 wickets - at 21.10 compared to Swann's 27.97.
Anderson has said that this could be the greatest England Test team. Using the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings we can analyse the total points each team had acquired. The current England record is 8861 (4930 batting + 3931 bowling) in the team which beat New Zealand at The Oval in 1958. In comparison, the side which won at Nottingham last year totalled 8859.
West Indies have not won an away series against anyone other than Bangladesh and Zimbabwe in 17 years and they have not won an overseas Test somewhere other than Bangladesh since the Boxing Day Test in South Africa in 2007
Andrew Strauss has captained England in 25 home Tests, winning 17 of those and only losing 2. He is currently level with Michael Vaughan for captaining the most home Test wins in England:
Captain
Played
Won
Lost
Tied
Drawn
% won
MP Vaughan
29
17
6
0
6
58.62
AJ Strauss
25
17
2
0
6
68.00
PBH May
26
16
4
0
6
61.53
Jonny Bairstow could become the 79th player to play Test cricket for England while a Yorkshire player, maintaining that county's lead in terms of the number of different current players to play for England: