England's red-ball captain Ben Stokes is standing at the threshold of a major milestone which will put him in an elite club of cricketers featuring Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, and Virat Kohli among others.
Stokes, 32, is one game away from recording 100 Test appearances for the Three Lions and in all likelihood, the third Test in Rajkot between India and England, starting February 15, will be the 100th Test of his career.
Should Stokes play in Rajkot, he'll become the 76th Test cricketer in the history of the sport with a minimum of 100 Test caps and the 16th England cricketer to achieve the feat.
England cricketers with the most Test appearances
| Matches | Player |
| 184 | James Anderson |
| 167 | Stuart Broad |
| 161 | Alastair Cook |
| 137 | Joe Root |
| 133 | Alec Stewart |
| 118 | Ian Bell |
| 118 | Graham Gooch |
| 117 | David Gower |
| 115 | Michael Atherton |
| 114 | Michael Cowdrey |
| 108 | Geoffrey Boycott |
| 104 | Kevin Pietersen |
| 102 | Ian Botham |
| 100 | Andrew Strauss |
| 100 | Graham Thorpe |
| 99 | Ben Stokes |
Stokes is enjoying a wonderful Test career. The southpaw is one of the leading allrounders in world cricket at the moment.
He has racked up 6251 runs for the Three Lions and is three shy of 200 Test poles. The World Cup winner averages 36.34 with the willow in hand and has notched up 13 centuries and 31 fifties in the red-ball format.
Though he isn't bowling at the moment after having recovered from knee surgery, the right-arm quick wields an impressive bowling record too.
He has grabbed his Test wickets at an average of 32.07, including eight four-wicket hauls and four five-fors.
England's Test squad for India series:
Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes (c), Ben Foakes (wk), Rehan Ahmed, Tom Hartley, Shoaib Bashir, James Anderson, Mark Wood, Ollie Robinson, Daniel Lawrence, Gus Atkinson.
