Hundreds in your first Test ... and your last

If Andrew Strauss had managed to score two centuries in the Lord's Test against New Zealand, would that have been unique? asked Jeremy Newsome from Worcester

It would have been unique for England if he'd reached his second hundred, but actually two other batsmen have managed two separate centuries on their Test debuts. The first was Lawrence Rowe, who hit 214 and 100 not out for West Indies v New Zealand at Kingston in 1971-72. Rowe, a Jamaican, was fortunate that he played his first match in front of his home crowd: at that stage of his career he hadn't scored a first-class hundred away from Sabina Park. The second man to score twin debut tons did so last August - Pakistan's Yasir Hameed followed his first-innings 170 with 105 against Bangladesh at Karachi. For a full list of players who have scored a century on Test debut, click here.

How many people have scored a century in their last Test, like Nasser Hussain? asked Robert Bronson from Glasgow

Nasser is actually the 11th England player to bow out with a century in his last Test match, assuming he doesn't get itchy feet the next time England find themselves at 10 for 2. The last one before him was Colin Milburn, who thumped 139 against Pakistan at Karachi in 1968-69. Sadly, Milburn lost an eye in a car accident shortly after that, and never played for England again. The list also includes Andy Sandham, the Surrey batsman, who actually made 325 (and 50) in his last Test - against West Indies at Kingston in 1929-30. As mentioned in a recent Ask Steven column, the highest score in a player's last Test innings is 258, by Seymour Nurse for West Indies v New Zealand at Christchurch in 1968-69. For a full list of players who scored a century in their last Test match, click here.

I noticed that all four openers at Lord's were left-handers - had that happened before? asked Simon Griffiths from Havant

There have only been five previous instances when all four opening batsmen in a Test have been left-handers - and four of them came in the same series. When Australia toured the West Indies in 2002-03, the openers in the first two Tests were Wavell Hinds and Devon Smith for West Indies, and Australia's Justin Langer and Matthew Hayden. For the third and fourth Tests Chris Gayle - yet another left-hander - replaced Hinds. The only other occasion was at Sharjah in October 2002, when Australia (Hayden and Langer again) played Pakistan, whose openers were Taufeeq Umar and Imran Farhat. There have also been four other instances of four left-handed openers when there have actually been five opening batsmen in a match after a second-innings change of batting order - the most recent of these being the first Test at Galle in March, when Sanath Jayasuriya and Kumar Sangakkara were the right-handed Marvan Atapattu's opening partners in Sri Lanka's two innings against Australia (for whom Hayden and Langer did the honours yet again).

In a recent article on Hussain, you mentioned that at one stage he went 1000 minutes between dismissals in Tests. What's the longest period between dismissals, and what's the most runs scored by any batsman between getting out in Tests? asked Geoff Andersen

First it's important to note that we don't have complete record for many early Tests, so the figures for time batted and balls faced aren't comprehensive. But using the information we do have, it looks as if only six batsmen have ever gone more than 1000 minutes between Test dismissals. The leader is the West Indian Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who batted for 1513 minutes between the second and fifth Tests against India at home in 2001-02, in which time he scored 67, 101 and 136, all not out, before being dismissed for 58. The other known cases are Jacques Kallis (1241 minutes), Sachin Tendulkar (1224), Rahul Dravid (1145), Hussain (1023) and Shoaib Mohammad (1007). In terms of balls faced - and again with the same caveat that we don't have the figures for many early innings - the record number faced between Test dismissals seems to be 1051 by Chanderpaul in the unbeaten spell mentioned above. We can be surer about runs scored between dismissals, and Tendulkar created a new record here recently when he amassed 497: he followed undefeated innings of 241 and 60 against Australia at Sydney in January 2004 with 194 not out and 2 against Pakistan. The previous record was 490 by Garry Sobers, whose then-record 365 not out in 1957-58 was followed by an innings of 125. Going into the current series against Bangladesh Brian Lara could have threatened their records - but he fell for 53 in the first innings at St. Lucia after having made the small matter of 400 not out in his previous outing.

Graham Thorpe has now played under seven Test captains: Gooch, Atherton, Stewart, Hussain, Butcher, Vaughan and Trescothick. Who has played under the most? David Gower perhaps? asked Rajiv Radhakrishnan from London

Gower is actually quite a way down the list, having played under ten captains. Nine players have taken the field under 11 different captains, including Gower's old mate Graham Gooch, and two did so with 12 - England's Jack Hobbs and Mushtaq Ahmed of Pakistan. But the clear winner, having tipped his cap to 14 different skippers, is yet another England left-hander - Frank Woolley, who played under Archie MacLaren, Henry Leveson Gower, Frederick Fane, Johnny Douglas, CB Fry, Lionel Tennyson, Frank Mann, Arthur Gilligan, Arthur Carr, Percy Chapman, Jack White, Harold Gilligan, Douglas Jardine and Bob Wyatt in his 64-Test career between 1909 and 1934.

Adam Gilchrist averages around one century for every seven Test innings he has batted at No. 7. Is this a record for a lower-order batsman? asked Terry Frankcombe from Leiden in Holland

At the time of writing Gilchrist has scored eight centuries from 63 Test innings at No. 7 - pretty good, but in terms of average (one every 7.88 innings) just behind another handy tailender, England's Ian Botham. "Beefy" managed six centuries from 47 outings at No. 7 - that's one for every 7.83 innings. Kapil Dev also managed seven centuries from the No. 7 spot, but from 163 attempts (one every 23.29 innings). Alan Knott made five Test centuries from No. 7 (in 117 innings), while Chris Cairns (71 innings), Moin Khan (76), Jeff Dujon (79) and Ian Healy (166) all managed four.