By the numbers: Ashton Agar

Cricket365 15 Jul 2013

Who? Indeed. Here's a handy collection of statistics and trivia for you in the wake of his first day on the job, in case you know little to nothing about The Baggy Green's newest Mitchell Starc look-alike.

The Australian selectors kept their cards very close to their chests ahead of the first Ashes Test at Trent Bridge, and the morning of day one saw the shock announcement of Ashton Agar as the spinner for the match, ousting Nathan Lyon.

7-1-24-0 – First set of international figures. Agar did a decent job on day one at Trent Bridge, and went for just four runs in his first over. He didn't really threaten, but got a bit of turn and bowled a good line, preventing the batsmen from going after him.

0 – People who expected this debut. Outside of the Australia camp and Agar's family, it was assumed Nathan Lyon would play in the first Test, given he has 22 Tests to his name and took nine wickets in the last Test he played, in India.

94 (as of 10 July) – Days till his 20th birthday. Agar made his Under 19 World Cup debut at the age of 17, and last year was also part of the Australian side at that event. He didn't get to play though, and only made his First Class debut in January this year.

434 – His cap number. He received his Baggy Green from legendary fast bowler Glenn McGrath, and proceeded to train with it on ahead of day one's play. His excitement would have rendered this faux pas forgivable.

12th – Youngest Aussie to make a Test debut. Ian Craig holds the record for the youngest Aussie debutant, running on at age 17 and 239 days against South Africa in 1953. Most recently, Pat Cummins made his debut at age 18.

7.5653Ã‚Â° N, 80.4303Ã‚Â° E – Sri Lanka's coordinates. Agar's ancestry hails from this Asian nation. He was born in Melbourne, though as his grandparents moved to Australia as adults.

187 – His height, in centimetres. Or 193 if you believe Wikipedia. He looks like a gangly spider when he lopes to the crease, with the giant hands of the teenage boy. But his height gives him some good bounce and flight.

10 – First class games played. Agar moved to Western Australia this year after not getting an opportunity to play at Victoria. He made his debut against New South Wales. He is inexperienced, but Lyon (5), Michael Beer (7), James Pattinson (9) and Cummins (3) all played less games before their Oz debuts.

31 – Number of wickets taken. In those 10 matches, he took regular wickets, which prompted the move to make him an 'intern' with the Aussie side and he was part of the India tour too. His best innings figures were 5/65 against South Australia in March.

4 – Test players he has dismissed. Agar has bagged a quartet of Test players while competing in first class cricket, namely Nick Compton (in the Worcs warm-up game), Doug Bollinger, Johan Botha and Vinay Kumar.

12 – Oz spinners since Warne. Agar is the 13th, obviously. The Aussies have struggled to find a spinner since the blonde maestro's retirement, with Lyon sticking around the longest. Only Nathan Hauritz has reached double figures (16) aside from Lyon.

71 not out – Top score. Agar isn't a mug with the bat, and has three first class fifties to his name in those 10 games. He averages 33.60.

Lindsay du Plessis