India vs England: Andy Zaltzman's alternative awards for the series after two Tests

There was a spectacular deluge of sponsored awards handed out in the aftermath of another captivating Test between India and England.

Following India's 106-run win in Visakhapatnam, we had Player of the Match (Jasprit Bumrah), Game Changer of the Match (Yashasvi Jaiswal), Smart Saver of the Match (Ben Foakes) and Striker of the Match (Jaiswal).

There was also Award Whose Name I Didn't Quite Catch of the Match (Shubman Gill), Traditional Norms of Quadragenarianism Defier of the Match (James Anderson), Fewest Stumps Remaining After an Unplayable Yorker of the Match (Ollie Pope), Uncharacteristic Dawdle of the Match (Ben Stokes) and Playing Surface of the Match (the pitch - well deserved).

Inspired by these, I present the Zaltzman Gratuitous Statistical Awards for the series so far.

Anderson's match figures of 5-76 mean that, in his 13 Tests away from England this decade, beginning with a series-turning seven-wicket match haul in Cape Town in January 2020, he has taken 52 wickets at an average of 15.6, and conceded 2.01 runs per over.

Seven of those matches have been in Asia (one in Sri Lanka, four in India, two in Pakistan), in which he has taken 27 wickets at an average of 14.7, with an economy rate of 1.99.

Of all visiting bowlers in Asia, only two - Australia's Glenn McGrath and New Zealand's Richard Hadlee - have ever had a better average over a seven-Test sequence.

Bumrah's economy rate might not be the most startling aspect of his bowling this series, with match figures of 6-69 and 9-91 containing an array of relocated stumps and befuddled edges, but it highlights how his unique cocktail of skills has presented Stokes' England with the toughest individual challenge they have yet faced.

His opening spell in the second innings in Visakhapatnam - 0-9 off five overs - was the most economical new-ball spell by a bowler against England in the 20 Tests since Stokes and McCullum took over.

In England's previous 20 Tests, it would have been only the joint-19th most economical.

The magic-wristed seamer's overall match economy rate of 2.74 was the lowest against England by a bowler who has bowled at least 15 overs since New Zealand's Trent Boult went at 2.48 per over in the first Stokes-McCullum Test at Lord's in June 2022. Bumrah's economy rate of 2.79 in the first Test in Hyderabad sits third on that list.

The retention of Crawley at the start of last summer has proved to be one of the most productive of the many superb selectorial decisions under Stokes.

Crawley had reached 20 in only 16 of his previous 49 Test innings. Since then, he has done so in 12 out of 14 (excluding his 12 not out in a 12-run fourth-innings chase against Ireland) and has now done so in nine consecutive innings since the third Ashes Test.

In Visakhapatnam, he also became the first visiting player to reach 70 in both innings of a Test in India since Australia great Ricky Ponting in October 2010.

The list of previous England players with nine or more consecutive 20-plus scores when opening in Tests contains most of the finest openers in the team's history - Jack Hobbs, Herbert Sutcliffe, Len Hutton, Bob Barber, John Edrich, Geoff Boycott, Graham Gooch, Mike Atherton and Marcus Trescothick, among whom only Barber did not have a major Test career, with at least 50 caps, 12 centuries and 4,500 runs.

England's spinners have, between them, taken 33 wickets at an average of 33.9. India's spinners collectively have taken 23 wickets at 38.3 - their highest average after the first two matches of a home series since Harbhajan Singh, Pragyan Ojha and various part-timers averaged 47.2 in the first two Tests against New Zealand in November 2010 (the last series India played at home before Ravichandran Ashwin made his debut).

It is only the fourth time in their last 37 home series, since November 2000, that India's spinners have had a higher collective average than their opponents after two Tests.

One of the others was England's successful tour under Alastair Cook in 2012-13, after Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar led England to victory in the second Test in Mumbai.

Given that Tom Hartley, Rehan Ahmed and Shoaib Bashir had as many wickets in their entire domestic red-ball careers before this series as Ashwin had taken in his previous 11 home Tests (74), this award-worthy stat is astonishing, even by the alchemic standards of the Bazball regime.