The longest careers, and 150 in both innings

Sachin Tendulkar has been playing international cricket for almost 20 years now. Has anyone had a longer career, in Tests and ODIs? asked Praveet Singh from Delhi

Sachin Tendulkar, who made his Test debut in November 1989, is well on the way to becoming only the 16th player to have a Test career spanning more than 20 years (for a list, click here). However, he has a long way to go before topping that particular table: the England allrounder Wilfred Rhodes played his first Test in 1899, and his last in 1929-30, when he was 52 - in all, his Test career lasted 30 years 315 days. Tendulkar does hold the Indian record for longevity, though, having recently outstayed Lala Amarnath, whose Test career lasted exactly 19 years. As far as ODIs go, Tendulkar played his first one in December 1989, so is well on the way to completing 20 years there too. Another current player, Sanath Jayasuriya, is close behind - his ODI debut was just eight days after Tendulkar's, on December 26, 1989. The record they're aiming for currently belongs to Pakistan's Javed Miandad, who played his first ODI during the 1975 World Cup, and his last one 20 years 272 days later, fittingly also at the World Cup (he is the only player to have appeared in six World Cups).

Has anyone ever scored 150 in or more in both innings of a Test match? asked Steve Field from Crawley

The only batsman to manage this is Australia's Allan Border, who made 150 not out and 153 against Pakistan in Lahore in 1979-80. There have been a couple of near-misses, though: in Harare in 2001-02 Andy Flower made 142 and 199 not out for Zimbabwe against South Africa, while recently in Chittagong Tillakeratne Dilshan scored 162 and 143 for Sri Lanka against Bangladesh.

Sourav Ganguly scored a century in his first Test innings, and a duck in his last. Is this a unique combination in Test or one-day international cricket? asked Anirban Mukherjee from India

Sourav Ganguly made 131 in his first Test innings, against England at Lord's in 1996, and 0 in his last, against Australia in Nagpur in 2008-09. Rather surprisingly, perhaps, this particular fate has befallen only two other men, both of them English: Billy Griffith made 140 in his first Test innings (as an emergency opener) against West Indies in Port-of-Spain in 1947-48, and a duck in his final innings (in only his third Test) against South Africa in Port Elizabeth the following winter; while John Hampshire made 107 in his first Test innings, against West Indies at Lord's in 1969, but 0 in his last, against Australia at Headingley in 1975. Nobody has yet managed this particular combination in ODIs.

Who has been the highest run-scorer in domestic cricket never to have played a Test? asked Aloke Surana from India

The leader here is the Glamorgan left-hand opener Alan Jones, who made 36,049 runs in first-class cricket at an average of 32.89 without ever playing in an official Test. He did, however, play for England against the Rest of the World in 1970, in what was advertised as a Test match at the time - and he did get an England cap for that, even though he was later asked to give it back (he didn't). Apart from Jones, the next-highest uncapped batsman is Sussex's John Langridge, who amassed 34,378 runs at 37.44.

I heard that Javed Miandad's Test batting average never dipped below 50. Is he unique? And how many people have never had an average below 40? asked Rafik Ahmed from Karachi

It's true that Javed Miandad's Test batting average never went below 50 - the lowest it reached was 51.75. The only other man who managed this was the old English opener Herbert Sutcliffe, whose average actually never dipped below 60 - the lowest it got was 60.73, after his 54th Test, at which point he promptly retired! A further 16 batsmen never had a Test batting average of below 40, including two current batsmen: England's Alastair Cook (lowest 40.88) and Thilan Samaraweera of Sri Lanka (40.04). I suppose this is a slightly artificial record in that it depends on doing well in your very first Test innings, but maybe that's the point!

Who, in first-class cricket, has scored a double-century and a century in the same match, without losing his wicket, on the greatest number of occasions? asked Bill Dee

This is the great Pakistan batsman Zaheer Abbas, who scored an undefeated double-century and a single hundred in the same match on four different occasions, all of them for Gloucestershire in the County Championship. Playing against Surrey at The Oval in 1976 he scored 216 and 156; later that summer he made 230 and 104 against Kent at Canterbury; the following year he hit 205 and 108 against Sussex at Cheltenham; and in 1981 he scored 215 and 150 against Somerset at Bath - and all eight innings were not out.