Alec Stewart

Early days

He made his England debut in the first Test of the 1989/90 tour of the West Indies, along with Nasser Hussain, who would eventually replace him as England captain.

At the start of his career, Stewart was a specialist opening batsman for England, with wicketkeeping duties being retained by Jack Russell, who was generally recognised as the superior gloveman and who batted down the order. However, Russell, the inferior batsman, would often be dropped to improve the balance of the side (i.e. to accommodate an extra bowler or batsman), in which case Stewart would don the gloves. After enduring years of selection and deselection, Russell retired from international cricket in 1998, leaving Stewart unrivalled as England's keeper-batsman until his own retirement in 2003.

Alec Stewart's career performance graph.

Prominence

His highest Test score, 190, was against Pakistan in the drawn first Edgbaston Test on 4 June 1992; it was his fourth century in five Tests. In 1994 at the Kensington Oval he became only the seventh Englishman to score centuries in both innings of a Test match, scoring 118 and 143 as the West Indies were beaten at their Bridgetown "fortress" for the first time since 1935.^[4]

Stewart's batting average (39.54) is the lowest of any player to have scored 8000 or more runs in Test cricket: he is the only player to have scored over 8000 runs despite an average of under 40.^[5] However, when played as a specialist batsman in Test cricket, Stewart averaged 46.90 in 51 games with 9 centuries. Since World War II, only Len Hutton, Geoff Boycott, Dennis Amiss and Alastair Cook have bettered Stewart's average of 46 as a specialist opening batsman for England.^[6] As wicketkeeper-batsman he averaged 34.92 from 82 tests, higher than many of his contemporaries and many of the current batch of international wicketkeepers. He was unlucky enough to be on the losing side in a record 54 Test Matches.

Stewart holds the record for scoring most test runs without a career double century in test history(8463)^[7]

Captaincy

Stewart was groomed for the England captaincy under Graham Gooch, deputising for him in four tests in India and Sri Lanka in 1993, but when Gooch retired from the captaincy later that year Mike Atherton was chosen to succeed him.

Always more of an establishment figure than any sort of rebel, it was no surprise when Stewart was asked to captain England in 1998 when Mike Atherton resigned. Despite being the age of 35 at the time, Stewart's level of fitness was impeccable, especially bearing in mind that most players do not continue beyond 37. As it was Stewart went on to play for England beyond his 40th birthday – but as events were to transpire – his captaincy of England barely lasted 12 months.

In his first series as captain, against South Africa, Stewart scored an outstanding 164 in the third Test at Old Trafford to salvage a draw, a result which eventually enabled England to overturn a 1–0 deficit to win the series 2–1. Nonetheless, failures against Australia and in the 1999 cricket World Cup saw him sacked from the captaincy to be replaced by Hussain. During his captaincy, he had the unusual distinction of simultaneously captaining the side, opening the batting and keeping wicket. He continued to deputise occasionally as captain of England's one-day side, and became the second international captain to concede a match in 2001, after a pitch invasion during a One Day International against Pakistan rendered the continuation of play impossible.^[8] He continued as an England player for five more seasons, and became only the fourth player to score a century in his 100th Test, scoring 105 against the West Indies at Old Trafford in 2000.

He also set a record for playing most number of ODI matches as captain who has kept the wicket as well as went onto open the batting with 28 times in his career.^[9]

Test centuries

Test centuries of Alec Stewart
No	Runs	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	Start date	Result
[1]	113*	14	Sri Lanka	London, England	Lord's	22 August 1991	Won
[2]	148	15	New Zealand	Christchurch, New Zealand	AMI Stadium	18 January 1992	Won
[3]	107	17	New Zealand	Wellington, New Zealand	Basin Reserve	6 February 1992	Drawn
[4]	190	18	Pakistan	Birmingham, England	Edgbaston Cricket Ground	4 June 1992	Drawn
[5]	118	36	West Indies	Bridgetown, Barbados	Kensington Oval	8 April 1994	Won
[6]	143
[7]	119	39	New Zealand	London, England	Lord's	16 June 1994	Drawn
[8]	170	57	Pakistan	Leeds, England	Headingley Cricket Ground	8 August 1996	Drawn
[9]	101*	60	Zimbabwe	Harare, Zimbabwe	Harare Sports Club	26 December 1996	Drawn
[10]	173	61	New Zealand	Auckland, New Zealand	Eden Park	24 January 1997	Drawn
[11]	164	78	South Africa	Manchester, England	Old Trafford	2 July 1998	Drawn
[12]	107	85	Australia	Melbourne, Australia	Melbourne Cricket Ground	26 December 1998	Won
[13]	124*	96	Zimbabwe	London, England	Lord's	18 May 2000	Won
[14]	105	100	West Indies	Manchester, England	Old Trafford	3 August 2000	Drawn
[15]	123	118	Sri Lanka	Manchester, England	Old Trafford	13 June 2002	Won

ODI centuries

One Day International centuries of Alec Stewart
No	Runs	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	Start date	Result
[1]	103	38	Pakistan	London, England	Kennington Oval	22 May 1992	Won
[2]	116	91	India	Sharjah, UAE	Sharjah Cricket Stadium	11 December 1997	Won
[3]	101	30	Zimbabwe	Birmingham, England	Edgbaston Cricket Ground	18 July 2000	Won
[4]	100*	31	West Indies	Nottingham, England	Trent Bridge	20 July 2000	Lost

One Day International Cricket

Man of the Match awards

#	Opponent	Venue	Date	Match Performance	Result
1	New Zealand	WACA Ground, Perth	7 December 1990	29* (43 balls, 4x4)	England won by 4 wickets.[13]
2	South Africa	Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne	12 March 1992	77 (88 balls, 7x4)	England won by 3 wickets.[14]
3	Pakistan	Kennington Oval, London	22 May 1992	103 (145 balls, 10x4)	England won by 39 runs.[15]
4	West Indies	Queen's Park Oval, Port of Spain	6 March 1994	WK 2 Ct. ; 53 (38 balls, 9x4, 1x6)	England won by 5 wickets.[16]
5	India	Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah	11 December 1997	116 (111 balls, 9x4, 1x6) ; WK 1 st.	England won by 7 runs.[17]
6	Sri Lanka	Lord's, London	14 May 1999	WK 3 Ct. ; 88 (146 balls, 6x4)	England won by 8 wickets.[18]
7	England	Edgbaston Cricket Ground, Birmingham	18 July 2000	101 (144 balls, 8x4) ; WK 4 Ct.	England won by 52 runs.[19]
8	England	Lord's, London	22 July 2000	WK 1 ct. ; 97 (124 balls, 14x4)	England won by 6 wickets.[20]
9	Bangladesh	Gymkhana Club Ground, Nairobi	5 October 2000	WK ; 87* (112 balls, 7x4, 2x6)	England won by 8 wickets.[21]
10	Sri Lanka	Brisbane Cricket Ground, Brisbane	17 December 2002	64 (60 balls, 4x4, 1x6) ; WK 2 ct.	England won by 43 runs.[22]