LONDON – England Cricket Team has made history as it becomes the onlycricketing nation in the World to play 1000 Test Matches.

England are playing their 1,000th Test match from August 1 at Edgbaston inBirmingham. They have become the first country to reach this milestone inthe 142-year history of Test cricket.

England along with Australia are the pioneers of Test cricket as bothcountries began playing in this format of the game from 1877. The firstever Test match was played between the two countries on March 15-19, 1877at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) in the Australian city of Melbourne.

The first ever English captain was James Lillywhite, who led the team inthe first two Test matches against Australia in 1877.

Now England are playing their 1000th Test under the captaincy of Joe Root,who has so far led his team in 17 Test matches.

In between, 78 players captained England during the period of more than 140years. Among them, four players led the team in 50 or more Test matcheswith Alastair Cook on top with 59 Tests, followed by Mike Atherton (54),Michael Vaughan (51) and Andrew Strauss (50).

In all, eleven teams have so far played 2,314 Test matches, including thepresent Test. After England, Australia have played the most Test matches(812), followed by West Indies (535), India (523), South Africa (427), NewZealand (426), Pakistan (415), Sri Lanka (274), Bangladesh (108), Zimbabwe(105).