Does Pat Cummins have the best Test bowling figures of any captain?

Both No. 1 openers in the WTC final were out for ducks. How often has this happened? asked Kirsty Grosvenor from Australia
You're right that Usman Khawaja, No. 1 on the Australian scorecard, was out for 0 (from 20 balls) on the first day of the World Test Championship final at Lord's last week, and he was followed later in the day by South Africa's Aiden Markram (six balls; he did rather better in the second innings).

This was only the tenth time in all Tests that the batters at the top of the order for both teams were out for 0 in the first innings of the same match (only considering the man who faced the first ball). There was no such double in the first 100 years of Test cricket: the first instance was in the match between Australia and India in Melbourne in 1977, when the rival No. 1s, Sunil Gavaskar and John Dyson, both fell for 0 in the first innings.

The most recent occurrence before last week was in Hobart in the final Ashes Test in 2022, when David Warner and Rory Burns both collected ducks at the top of the order. Here's the full list, of No. 1s being out for 0 in the first innings of a match.

Does Pat Cummins now have the best bowling figures by an Australian captain (or any captain!) in a Test? asked Dane Kristoffer from Australia
Pat Cummins took 6 for 28 in South Africa's first innings in the World Test Championship final. They were the best figures by a captain in the 147 Tests at Lord's, beating Bob Willis' 6 for 101 for England against India in June 1982.

Cummins' figures are the fourth-best by an Australia captain in a Test, behind the 7 for 44 of Ian Johnson against West Indies in Georgetown in 1955, Allan Border's unlikely 7 for 46 vs West Indies in Sydney in 1989, and Monty Noble's 7 for 100 against England in Sydney in 1904.

The best bowling figures by any captain in a Test match are 9 for 83, by Kapil Dev for India against West Indies in Ahmedabad in 1983. Here's the full list of best bowling performances by Test captains.

Apparently Australia had played South Africa at Lord's in a Test before - when was this? asked Stephen Bashenga from South Africa
Last week's World Test Championship final was indeed the second time Australia and South Africa had met in an official Test at Lord's. The first one was in 1912, during an ambitious Triangular Test tournament that was rather spoiled by the weather. In the match between Australia and South Africa at Lord's - the fifth of the tournament's nine games - Charlie Kelleway and Warren Bardsley made centuries and the Australians won by ten wickets.

Australia also played a Test against Pakistan at Lord's in 2010, as security concerns at the time precluded playing in Pakistan. Steven Smith made his debut in that one, which means he's played Tests at Lord's against three different opponents, a record for an overseas player. He's also the leading Test run-scorer among visitors to Lord's.

How many people have played their one and only Test at Lord's? I mean visiting players - I imagine there have been lots of Englishmen… asked Matthew Rowell from South Africa
If you're only going to play one Test match, it would be special to do it at Lord's… and, rather to my surprise, there are currently only three overseas players who fit the bill. The first two did it for India: Lall Singh, the Malaysia-born batter (and superb fielder) who played in their inaugural Test, in 1932, and opening batter Ghulam Parkar, who made two single-figure scores in a defeat in 1982. The third man might yet play again: Fionn Hand won his only Test cap for Ireland so far at Lord's in 2023.

A total of 14 England players have won their only Test cap at Lord's, the most recent being legspinner Matt Parkinson, who stepped in as a concussion substitute against New Zealand in 2022. For the record, the others are Stanley Christopherson (1884), Walter Mead (1899), John King (1909), Alf Dipper, Jack Durston and John Evans (all in 1921), Harry Smith (1928), Johnny Arnold (1931), Jim Parks senior (1937), Frank Smailes (1946), George Pope (1947), Alec Coxon (1948) and Simon Brown (1996).

In last week's question about players who had appeared in every edition of the IPL, did you miss out Ravi Jadeja? asked Brij Mohan Mahagaonkar from India
You worried me there - I knew that Ravindra Jadeja featured in the inaugural IPL, in 2008 - but actually he missed the third one, in 2010, after running into contractual problems. He therefore just failed to emulate MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Manish Pandey and Rohit Sharma in playing in them all so far.

Jadeja is one of five players who have appeared in 17 of the 18 editions of the IPL. Three of the others featured in every season until the most recent one: Shikhar Dhawan, wicketkeeper-turned-commentator Dinesh Karthik, and another keeper, Wriddhiman Saha. The other man is Ajinkya Rahane, who did not play in 2010. R Ashwin, Piyush Chawla, Amit Mishra and Jaydev Unadkat have all appeared in 16 IPLs.