Bresnan stopped at 13

England had won all of Tim Bresnan's first 13 Tests before the Birmingham weather and an improbable West Indian batting performance consigned his 14th to a draw. With the victory at Trent Bridge, Bresnan had drawn level with Australian fast bowler Stuart Clark in second place, but the stalemate at Edgbaston meant he could not challenge Adam Gilchrist's record of 15 consecutive wins from the start of a career.

Gilchrist, who contributed significantly to those 15 wins with 992 runs at an average of 58, was well on course for a 16th before Australia were unexpectedly beaten at Eden Gardens in 2001. He made a first-ball pair in that match. Clark's run of victories also ended against India, when Australia lost his 14th Test in Perth in 2008.

Despite his all-round performances in England wins, Bresnan has not been a regular in their first XI, often playing only when one of the first-choice fast bowlers was unavailable. Bresnan averages 40 with the bat and 26 with the ball but his 14 Tests have spanned three years. His present run of four consecutive matches - the last in Sri Lanka and the three against West Indies - is the longest of his career.

Former West Indies allrounder Eldine Baptise holds the record for the longest career with a 100% win record - ten Tests. Nine of those matches were between 1983 and '84, but the next was six years later, in 1990. Baptiste scored 9 and took one wicket in an innings-and-32-run victory against England in Antigua and did not play again. He enjoyed one more famous victory over England, though, this time as coach of the Stanford Superstars in their $20 million victory in 2009.

Most consecutive wins at the start of a career

Player	Span	Mat	Won	Lost	Draw		Inns	Runs	Bat Av	100		Balls	Wkts	Bowl Av	5
AC Gilchrist (Aus)	1999-2001	15	15	0	0		21	992	58.35	2		0	0	-	0
SR Clark (Aus)	2006-2008	13	13	0	0		12	137	13.70	0		2920	62	20.20	1
TT Bresnan (Eng)	2009-2012	13	13	0	0		11	362	40.22	0		2841	52	25.46	1
EAE Baptiste (WI)	1983-1990	10*	10	0	0		11	233	23.30	0		1362	16	35.18	0
B Lee (Aus)	1999-2001	10	10	0	0		10	174	24.85	0		1726	48	19.37	3
TT Samaraweera (SL)	2001-2002	10	10	0	0		10	581	83.00	2		724	11	30.54	0
JM Gregory (Aus)	1920-1921	8	8	0	0		12	512	51.20	1		1960	40	22.20	2
JM Taylor (Aus)	1920-1921	8	8	0	0		11	324	29.45	0		0	0	-	0
AJ Strauss (Eng)	2004-2004	8	8	0	0		16	810	57.85	3		0	0	-	0
AA Mailey (Aus)	1920-1921	7	7	0	0		9	63	12.60	0		1925	46	25.69	4
CE Pellew (Aus)	1920-1921	7	7	0	0		11	460	46.00	2		6	0	-	0
RN Harvey (Aus)	1948-1950	7	7	0	0		10	687	98.14	4		24	0	-	0
KF Barrington (Eng)	1955-1959	7	7	0	0		9	409	45.44	0		282	5	27.00	0
GA Lohmann (Eng)	1886-1888	6	6	0	0		9	86	10.75	0		1119	38	10.00	4
TW Hayward (Eng)	1896-1897	6	6	0	0		9	299	37.37	1		158	2	58.00	0
HL Collins (Aus)	1920-1921	6	6	0	0		10	574	57.40	2		156	2	42.00	0
EA McDonald (Aus)	1921-1921	6	6	0	0		7	57	14.25	0		1487	28	28.03	1
DR Jardine (Eng)	1928-1929	6	6	0	0		9	427	53.37	0		6	0	-	0
DJ Terbrugge (SA)	1998-2002	6	6	0	0		6	14	14.00	0		880	20	21.20	1
PA Jaques (Aus)	2005-2008	6	6	0	0		10	573	57.30	2		0	0	-	0
ST Finn (Eng)	2010-2010	6	6	0	0		6	12	12.00	0		966	27	21.85	2

* denotes the player's entire career

All of the top players in the table above - Gilchrist, Clark, Bresnan, Baptiste and Brett Lee - were part of teams that were the best in the world. Bresnan still is. Sri Lanka, however, were not close to being No. 1 when Thilan Samaraweera played his first ten Tests, but they still won all of them. Apart from the Asian Test Championship final in 2002, all of the other matches were in Sri Lanka, and Samaraweera averaged 83 in ten innings.

Malcolm Marshall played the most Tests before experiencing defeat - 35 between 1978 and 1984. To put that in perspective, Dwayne Bravo played 23 Tests before he was part of a winning team. West Indies won 17 and drew 18 of Marshall's first 35 games and he took 161 wickets at an average of 22 in them. At second place in the table below is Keith Miller, who played 25 Tests before Australia lost with him in the XI, followed by three more Invincibles.

Of the Australians who formed the great sides of the 1990s and 2000s, only Andrew Symonds and Michael Hussey began their careers with undefeated streaks longer than Gilchrist's, because of the trip-ups in India or in Ashes dead rubbers. Australia won all but one of the first 20 and 17 matches respectively that Hussey and Symonds played. The one that got away was the Perth Test against South Africa in 2009, which was drawn because of Jacques Rudolph's fourth-innings century.

Most consecutive Tests without defeat at the start of a career

Player	Span	Mat	Won	Lost	Draw		Inns	Runs	Bat Av	100		Balls	Wkts	Bowl Av	5
MD Marshall (WI)	1978-1984	35	17	0	18		42	678	16.95	0		7620	161	22.11	12
KR Miller (Aus)	1946-1951	25	20	0	5		35	1372	45.73	2		4163	70	21.05	2
RR Lindwall (Aus)	1946-1951	23	18	0	5		28	551	21.19	1		4691	89	19.47	5
AR Morris (Aus)	1946-1951	23	18	0	5		37	2097	61.67	10		48	0	-	0
IWG Johnson (Aus)	1946-1951	22	17	0	5		29	456	17.53	0		4736	58	29.31	2
RK Chauhan (India)	1993-1998	21*	12	0	9		17	98	7.00	0		4749	47	39.51	0
MEK Hussey (Aus)	2005-2008	20	19	0	1		33	2120	84.80	8		30	0	-	0
D Tallon (Aus)	1946-1951	19	15	0	4		22	376	18.80	0		0	0	-	0
ATW Grout (Aus)	1957-1961	19	12	0	6		24	468	23.40	0		0	0	-	0
MJK Smith (Eng)	1958-1961	19	10	0	9		31	936	31.20	2		54	1	25.00	0
WA Johnston (Aus)	1947-1951	18	15	0	3		17	112	11.20	0		4860	87	17.64	3
KF Barrington (Eng)	1955-1961	17	10	0	7		27	1125	45.00	2		941	10	35.70	0
A Symonds (Aus)	2004-2008	17	16	0	1		25	923	41.95	2		1398	17	36.58	0
JM Gregory (Aus)	1920-1925	16	12	0	4		24	863	41.09	2		4378	76	26.46	4
L Hutton (Eng)	1937-1946	16	5	0	11		26	1468	61.16	5		104	2	35.00	0
RA Harper (WI)	1983-1986	16	12	0	4		20	303	17.82	0		2776	38	26.86	1
Shoaib Mohammad (Pak)	1983-1988	16	2	0	14		23	543	25.85	1		108	3	18.66	0

Former India spinner Rajesh Chauhan has the longest completed career without a Test defeat. He played 21 matches during the 1990s - 16 at home, four in Sri Lanka and one in New Zealand - of which India won 12 and drew nine. He contributed 47 wickets at an average of 39 to those results.

There are also those whose careers did not start with an abundance of wins or draws. Bert Sutcliffe, for example, whose 42-Test career began in 1947 and ended in 1965, before New Zealand achieved their maiden victory in Test cricket. His is the longest completed career without a Test win, and he is kept company by several of his team-mates, who had shorter careers, in the table below.

Pakistan did not win any of the first 28 matches that Mushtaq Mohammad, who was once the youngest century-maker in Test cricket, played. They lost 13 and drew 15 of those games. In his 29th Test, in Dunedin in 1973, Mushtaq made 201 and took seven wickets, becoming only the second player to score a double-century and take five wickets in an innings of a Test. Pakistan won by an innings and 166 runs

Most consecutive Tests without victory at the start of a career

Player	Span	Mat	Won	Lost	Draw		Inns	Runs	Bat Av	100		Balls	Wkts	Bowl Av	5
B Sutcliffe (NZ)	1947-1965	42*	0	23	19		76	2727	40.10	5		538	4	86.00	0
Habibul Bashar (Ban)	2000-2004	32	0	29	3		63	2138	34.48	3		234	0	-	0
Khaled Mashud (Ban)	2000-2004	31	0	28	3		59	1002	19.26	1		0	0	-	0
Mushtaq Mohammad (Pak)	1959-1973	28	0	13	15		49	1602	35.60	4		1392	18	36.00	0
JR Reid (NZ)	1949-1956	26	0	16	10		47	1373	30.51	3		3865	37	36.78	0
BC Strang (Zim)	1995-2001	26*	0	16	10		45	465	12.91	0		5433	56	39.33	1
Javed Omar (Ban)	2001-2004	25	0	23	2		50	1030	21.02	1		6	0	-	0
Mohammad Ashraful (Ban)	2001-2004	23	0	20	3		45	1112	26.47	2		672	7	72.71	0
DJ Bravo (WI)	2004-2007	23	0	16	7		42	1404	34.24	2		3558	45	43.37	2
BW Sinclair (NZ)	1963-1968	21*	0	10	11		40	1148	29.43	3		60	2	16.00	0
Shahadat Hossain (Ban)	2005-2009	21	0	19	2		40	198	7.07	0		3116	50	43.76	2
Shahriar Nafees (Ban)	2005-2011	21*	0	19	2		42	1126	26.80	1		0	0	-	0
AR MacGibbon (NZ)	1951-1956	20	0	13	7		35	595	19.83	0		4443	46	37.19	0
RW Blair (NZ)	1953-1964	19*	0	13	6		34	189	6.75	0		3525	43	35.23	0
D Ramdin (WI)	2005-2007	19	0	13	6		34	704	24.27	0		0	0	-	0
L Amarnath (India)	1933-1952	18	0	8	10		34	742	23.93	1		3294	36	33.80	2
Javed Burki (Pak)	1960-1965	18	0	5	13		35	1157	35.06	3		42	0	-	0
BK Kunderan (India)	1960-1967	18*	0	7	11		34	981	32.70	2		24	0	-	0
P Willey (Eng)	1976-1981	18	0	9	9		34	861	29.68	2		971	5	81.20	0
Tapash Baisya (Ban)	2002-2004	18	0	16	2		35	346	11.93	0		2870	31	59.12	0

Sutcliffe and the other winless New Zealand players, however, fought out a fair number of draws. New Zealand drew 19 and lost 23 of Sutcliffe's 42 matches. That wasn't the case for a lot of Bangladesh players, though. Habibul Bashar and Khaled Mashud, for example, were part of only three draws, and no wins, in careers that comprised 32 and 31 Tests. Bangladesh lost all 17 Tests that Alok Kapali played.

Most consecutive defeats at the start of a career

Player	Span	Mat	Won	Lost	Draw		Inns	Runs	Bat Av	100		Balls	Wkts	Bowl Av	5
Alok Kapali (Ban)	2002-2006	17*	0	17	0		34	584	17.69	0		1103	6	118.16	0
Hannan Sarkar (Ban)	2002-2004	13	0	13	0		26	617	23.73	0		0	0	-	0
Tapash Baisya (Ban)	2002-2004	12	0	12	0		24	163	8.57	0		2012	23	55.21	0
Mohammad Sharif (Ban)	2001-2007	10*	0	10	0		20	122	7.17	0		1651	14	79.00	0
Mehrab Hossain (Ban)	2000-2003	9*	0	9	0		18	241	13.38	0		12	0	-	0
Sanwar Hossain (Ban)	2001-2003	9*	0	9	0		18	345	19.16	0		444	5	62.00	0
Mohammad Rafique (Ban)	2000-2004	9	0	9	0		18	177	11.80	0		2807	42	28.09	3
Mushfiqur Rahim (Ban)	2005-2008	9	0	9	0		18	285	16.76	0		0	0	-	0
Surendranath (India)	1958-1959	8	0	8	0		16	113	9.41	0		1924	20	39.25	2
D Ganga (WI)	1998-2000	8	0	8	0		14	182	13.00	0		0	0	-	0
Akram Khan (Ban)	2000-2003	8*	0	8	0		16	259	16.18	0		0	0	-	0
EH Hendren (Eng)	1920-1921	7	0	7	0		14	336	24.00	0		0	0	-	0
CH Parkin (Eng)	1920-1921	7	0	7	0		14	129	10.75	0		1683	24	40.41	1
TR Gripper (Zim)	1999-2000	7	0	7	0		14	175	12.50	0		124	1	81.00	0
Talha Jubair (Ban)	2002-2004	7*	0	7	0		14	52	6.50	0		1090	14	55.07	0
D Ramdin (WI)	2005-2006	7	0	7	0		14	312	24.00	0		0	0	-	0
Shahadat Hossain (Ban)	2005-2006	7	0	7	0		14	55	6.11	0		1071	16	49.56	1