Kiwis' second-best bowler to be the fourth to 100 games in every format

The Blackcaps skipper Tim Southee will take the field for the 100th time in Tests in the second game against Australia in Christchurch, starting on Friday (March 8).

The medium pacer had a slow start to his red-ball career. It took four years for Southee to settle down and be among the wickets consistently. 

It was the year 2012 in which he started to pick heaps of wickets. From 2012 until 2023, Southee had 15+ wickets each year, 20+ wickets in 11 years, and 25+ wickets in nine years out of the 12. 

Only twice did his average cross over 35 in these 12 years, but never went above 40. 

Let's look at some of his other career highlights:

-Southee will become the fourth player in international cricket to play 100 games in each format. Ross Taylor was the first to achieve this feat, followed by Virat Kohli and David Warner. 

-With 378 wickets, Southee is New Zealand's second-best bowler in the longest format after Sir Richard Hadlee (431). His 15 five-wicket hauls are the third-most after Sir Hadlee (36) and Daniel Vettori (20) for the Blackcaps. 

-The Kiwi pacer has picked 15+ wickets across 12 years, the joint-most for a New Zealand bowler. Vettori and Sir Hadlee also achieved this feat over 12 years. 

Among bowlers from this century, only James Anderson (17), Stuart Broad (15), and Nathan Lyon (13) have picked up 15+ wickets over more years than Southee. Ravichandran Ashwin has also done it for 12 years.  

-The trio of Southee, Trent Boult, and Neil Wagner have bagged 535 wickets while bowling together. These are the third-most by a pace trio. James Anderson, Stuart Broad, and Ben Stokes lead the list with 568. 

The triad bagged 13.4 wickets/match while bowling together, the best among trios with 150+ Test wickets. They are even better than the deadly West Indian troika of Colin Croft, Joel Garner, and Michael Holding. 

-The duo of Boult and Southee is the fifth-best among pacers. They have scalped 541 wickets together. The pair of Anderson and Broad lead the list with 1039. 

-Southee has 58 wickets in Asia at an average of 26.5, which is better than his home record (226 wickets at 27.9). In Tests since 1990, among nine non-subcontinent pacers who have bagged 50+ wickets in Asia, only three, including Southee, average better in Asia than at home. 

-In seven innings in Sri Lanka, Southee has snaffled 19 wickets at an astounding average of 15.5, the second-best after Sir Hadlee (12.3) among any bowler who has bowled 100+ overs in the island country. 

-Southee is among five players to score 2000+ runs, pick 200+ wickets, and take 75+ catches as a fielder in Tests. 

Jacques Kallis (13289 runs, 292 wickets, and 200 catches), Shane Warne (3154 runs, 708 wickets, and 125 catches), Sir Ian Botham (5200 runs, 383 wickets, and 120 catches), and Sir Garry Sobers (8032 runs, 235 wickets, and 109 catches) are the other four. 

-In his Test career, Southee has scored 25.1% of his runs through sixes, the most among all batters with 50+ sixes. 

Among all batters who have scored 2000+ runs in Test and where boundary data is available, no other batter has scored more than 16% of their runs through sixes.  

-The 2072 runs scored by Southee without a century are the fourth-most by a batter in Tests. Warne, with 3154, leads the list. 

-Out of the 2072 total runs, 1,583 runs have come as number nine or lower batter. Only the nighthawk, Broad (2305), has more runs than him for nine or lower batters in Tests.

-Southee has hit 87 sixes in his Test career, which is the most for any tail-ender (8-11). The next best is Broad with 55. 

-He has an overall strike rate of 82.7 in Tests, the best among batters with 2000+ runs in Tests since 1990.