Has any other bowler got to 200 Test wickets averaging less than Jasprit Bumrah?

I noticed that there were no players in Australia's team in the Boxing Day Test who were in their twenties - Sam Konstas is 19, everyone else was in their thirties. Has any Test team ever had nobody in their twenties before? asked Reece Lane from England
That's a good spot. Australia's team in the absorbing fourth Test against India in Melbourne last week was the first to contain a teenager (the precocious Sam Konstas) and ten thirtysomething players. It happened again in the final Test in Sydney, even though Australia changed their team: newcomer Beau Webster was born in December 1993, so is already 31.

There have been four previous Tests in which all 11 players on one side were over 30. Three of them were fairly recent matches involving New Zealand: two Tests against Pakistan in Karachi in December 2022 and January 2023 (when their youngest player was Ish Sodhi, who had turned 30 in October 2022), and against England in Wellington in February 2023, when the youngest was Will Young (born November 1992).

Many years before, at Headingley during the 1921 Ashes series, England fielded a team composed entirely of players over 30, even though four of them were making their Test debuts. The youngest back then was Vallance Jupp, who was born in March 1891. (Thanks to Ian Hill for his help with this one.)

Jasprit Bumrah took his 200th Test wicket in Melbourne, and still averages less than 20. Has anyone else matched this? asked Deepak Kanwalkar from India
Jasprit Bumrah's remarkable form in Australia took him past 200 wickets during the fourth Test in Melbourne, the landmark wicket being Travis Head. Going into the final Test in Sydney, Bumrah had 203 wickets at 19.42.

No one else has had an average below 20 at the time they took their 200th Test wicket - next comes Joel Garner at 20.34 (he ended with 259 at 20.97). It should be noted, however, that the average of South Africa's Shaun Pollock briefly dipped under 20 later on: after his 50th Test, he had 210 wickets at 19.86. He finished with 421 wickets at 23.11.

Laura Wolvaardt scored a huge amount of international runs in all three formats last year. Did she break the record? asked Brydon McKenzie from South Africa
This turns out to be a slightly complicated one. South Africa's Laura Wolvaardt did break the record in 2024 - but she only held top spot for a short time as she was overtaken herself late in December.

At the start of last year, the calendar-year record for runs in all three women's international formats was held by England's Nat Sciver-Brunt, with 1346 in 2022. Wolvaardt passed that in 2024, finishing the year with 1593 runs in all - 223 in Tests, 697 in ODIs and 673 in T20s. But that was passed in December by India's Smriti Mandhana, who finished with 1659 runs in the calendar year - 149 in Tests, 747 in ODIs and 763 in T20s. Mandhana is also fourth and fifth on this list: she made 1291 international runs in 2018, and 1290 in 2022.

Sciver-Brunt remains England's record-holder. Sophia Dunkley comes next for them, with 1093, also in 2022. Their team-mate Maia Bouchier made 974 in 2024, including a century on her Test debut in Bloemfontein in December.

Zimbabwe's Brian Bennett scored his maiden century and took his first five-wicket haul in just his second Test. Has anyone done this double quicker than that? asked Keith Casey from Zimbabwe
Brian Bennett scored 110 not out and then took 5 for 95 during Zimbabwe's run-soaked draw against Afghanistan in Bulawayo last week. He was the third man to collect his maiden century and first five-for in his second Test, after Jack Gregory for Australia against England in Melbourne in 1921 and Roston Chase for West Indies vs India in Kingston in 2016.

Only four other men have achieved this double in the same Test - but one of them was making his debut: Bruce Taylor scored 105 and took 5 for 86 for New Zealand against India in Calcutta in 1965. Like Bennett, Taylor was 21 - but now that some confusion about his date of birth has been resolved, it can be confirmed that Bennett is the youngest to achieve the feat, being around six months younger than Taylor was. It should be noted that Chamani Seneviratna also did this in what turned out to be her only women's Test, for Sri Lanka against Pakistan in Colombo in 1998.

Bennett joined a distinguished cast of men who scored a century and took five wickets in an innings in the same Test at any stage of their career - and again he is the youngest to have done it. Ian Botham appears five times on this list, and R Ashwin four. The only other Zimbabwean to do it was Paul Strang, against Pakistan in Sheikhupura in 1996.

One man from each side in the recent Bulawayo Test was making his first-class debut - how often has this happened? asked David Protheroe from England
Six people made their Test debut in Bulawayo last week, and you're right that for two of them - Newman Nyamhuri of Zimbabwe and Afghanistan's AM Ghazanfar - it was their maiden first-class match too.

This has been an unusual occurrence over the years, as this list shows. Since 1900 there had been only eight additions until last week, including two in 2023 from Ireland, where very little first-class cricket is played. It was more frequent before 1900, mainly because South Africa also had a limited domestic programme at the time. It's therefore not too surprising that the last instance of two opposing players making their first-class debut in the same Test was in Port Elizabeth in 1896 - Audley Miller for England and Joseph Willoughby for South Africa.