The first pacer to play 100 games in each format

Tim Southee is set to join the 100-Test club for New Zealand along with his former Kiwi captain Kane Williamson when both take the field in the 2nd Test against Australia in Christchurch this Friday. Coincidentally both Southee and Williamson had also played their 50th Test together, against Zimbabwe in 2016 at Bulawayo.

This is also only the third instance of a pair from the same team playing their 100th Test together. The first time this happened was in August 2000, the Manchester Test between England and West Indies, when Alec Stewart and Mike Atherton played their 100 Test together while the second time was when Shaun Pollock and Jacques Kallis played together in their 100th landmark Test against New Zealand atCenturion in 2006.

Here are all the Test career records and numbers for the current New Zealand Test captain:

5- Tim Southee would become the 5th player to feature in 100 Tests or more for New Zealand. Only Stephen Fleming, Daniel Vettori, Brendon McCullum, and Ross Taylor have played 100 Tests for New Zealand. He will become the overall 79th player to play 100 matches in the game's longest format.

Most Test matches for New Zealand

Note: Vettori has played 1 match for the ICC Test team which is not included in the above table.

4- Tim Southee will only become the fourth player after Ross Taylor, Virat Kohli and David Warner to play 100 or more matches in each format. He is only the second bowler to pick 100 wickets in each format after Shakib Al Hasan.

Players with 100 or more games in each format

2 - New Zealand's spearhead, Tim Southee, is the second-highest wicket-taker for New Zealand in Test Cricket only behind Sir Richard Hadlee. He has taken 15 five-wicket hauls in Tests which is the third-highest for a New Zealand bowler after Hadlee and Vettori.

Most wickets for New Zealand in Tests

19y 102d- the age, when Southee picked a Test five-fer on debut (sixth New Zealander to take a five-wicket haul on his Test debut), he became the second youngest New Zealand bowler to pick a five-wicket haul in Tests after Daniel Vettori, who bagged a 5-fer at the age of 18y 46d against Sri Lanka at Hamilton in 1997.

Five-wicket hauls for New Zealand pacers on debut

Southee, Boult & Wagner as pace trio

535 - In the 40 Tests that they have played together, Tim Southee (182), Trent Boult (182) and Neil Wagner (171) have collectively taken 535 wickets at a combined bowling average of 25.58 and a strike rate of 51.56 as a pace bowling group which puts them fifth in the list of highest wickets in the Test format (100+ wickets for each bowler). The trio is only the second all-pace bowling trio with the combined highest Test wickets behind the trios of James Anderson (221), Stuart Broad (223) and Ben Stokes (124), whose combination has bagged 568 wickets in 59 Tests they featured together. They are also the only seam bowling trio to have taken 150+ wickets each in the Tests they featured together.

Most Test wickets by pace bowling trios (with min 100 wickets for each)

81 - wickets were taken by Tim Southee when he took the first new ball (1-10 overs) since his debut in Test cricket in March 2008. Only the former England bowling pair, James Anderson (116) and Stuart Broad (115) have more wickets with the first new ball (1-10 overs) since Southee's Test debut. His former partner Trent Boult is just behind him with 70 Test wickets with a new ball.

72 - wickets by Southee against England is the third most by a New Zealand bowler against an opponent in Tests. Richard Hadlee (130) has the most wickets against a team.

Most Test wickets for New Zealand against a team

130 - Richard Hadlee vs Australia (23 mats)

97 - Richard Hadlee vs England (21 mats)

72 - Tim Southee vs England (19 mats)*

70 - Trent Boult vs England (14 mats)

226 - wickets bagged by Southee in home Tests is the most by a New Zealand bowler, well ahead of the next best Richard Hadlee (201). Recently retired Neil Wagner is 3rd on this list. 416 international wickets by Southee is also the most by a Kiwi bowler at home.

61 - Test wickets at Wellington by Southee is the 2nd most by a New Zealand bowler at a single venue. Only Hadlee (76) has more at AMI, Christchurch.

204 - Test wickets by Southee in a winning cause is the most for New Zealand. Trent Boult is second on this list with 182 wickets. Southee also has 442 wickets in 180 games across formats in winning cause, which is also the most by a New Zealand bowler.

Most Test wickets in a winning cause (for New Zealand)

9 - Tim Southee has dismissed Dimuth Karunaratne 9 times in 11 Tests, the joint most a New Zealand bowler has dismissed a batter in this format. Southee has dismissed Rohit Sharma 12 times and Virat Kohli 11 times (most by a bowler) in international cricket.

75 - wickets have been taken by Southee in 61 matches when BJ Watling, the former Kiwi wicket-keeper, has taken the catches off his bowling which is seventh most by a bowler-fielder combination. Dennis Lillee tops the list with 95 wickets when Rod Marsh has taken the catch behind the wickets.

Bowler-Fielder Combinations in Test

Tim Southee, the lower-order batter

86- sixes struck by Tim Southee in his Test career, the ninth on the all-time Test list with 86 sixes. He needs 12 more to move into the top five. He has the 2nd most maximums among current cricketers, only Ben Stokes (128) has more. Only Brendon McCullum (107) and Chris Cairns (87) have more Test sixes for New Zealand.

9- sixes struck by Tim Southee during his unbeaten 77 in only his second Test innings against England in Napier in 2008, is the most by a batter in innings in the debut Test. Nine sixes hit by Southee is also the record most by a batsman in a debut Test match. Second place in this list belongs to Kyle Mayers's 7 maximums who struck against Bangladesh at Chattogram in 2021.

Most sixes in debut Test match

8- Southee is among one of the eight with a five-wicket haul and 50+ scores in their debut Test match. He is only the 2nd New Zealander after Bruce Taylor to do so and also the last player to achieve this in Test Cricket history, when he had a debut five-wicket haul, finishing with 5-55 and scoring 77* from just 40 balls, including nine sixes and four fours against England in 2008 at Napier.

Players with a 5-fer & a fifty in same debut Test match

2072 - runs scored by Southee in 99 Test matcheswith the help of 6 fifties but he did not hit a Test century yet. 77* in his debut game is the highest score for him in this format. 2072 runs by Southee is also the fourth most Test runs by a batter without a hundred. 3115 runs by Southee in international cricket is also the 4th highest in this regard.

Most runs without a Test hundred

3154 - Shane Warne (HS 99)

2757 - Niroshan Dickwella (HS 96)

2084 - Chetan Chauhan (HS 97)

2072 - Tim Southee (HS 77*)

2044 - Mitchell Starc (HS 99)

1 - Southee currently has the highest Test batting strike rate among the batsmen with a minimum of 2000 Test runs. His batting career strike rate is 82.68 just ahead of Virender Sehwag's batting average of 82.23.

2 - Tim Southee (29 balls) also had the record for the fastest half-century (by balls faced) hit by a Kiwi batsman when he struck an unbeaten 77 runs in his debut Test which was later bettered by Colin de Grandhomme (28 balls) in 2018 against Sri Lanka in Christchurch Test.

3 - players have achieved the double of 2000 runs & 300 wickets in Test cricket for New Zealand till date including Southee (2072 runs & 378 wkts), the other New Zealanders being Richard Hadlee (3124 runs & 431 wkts) and Daniel Vettori (4523 runs & 361 wkts). While Hadlee achieved this record in just 61 Tests, Vettori did it in the 94th match of his career. Southee is the slowest among them having done it in 95 Tests. Southee is also among the three Kiwi players to achieve the triple of 1000 runs, 50 wickets and 50 catches in Tests with Nathan Astle and Vettori.

11 - Southee was named the full-time New Zealand Test captain in December 2022 after the resignation of Kane Williamson. He captained 11 Test to date in which he won 6 matches and lost thrice whereas two Tests ended in a draw. He also has the second-best win-loss ratio (2.00) by a New Zealand skipper who has captained at least 10 Test matches.