Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council (ICC), with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days. It is generally considered the ultimate test of playing ability and endurance in the sport. The origin of the name test stems from the fact that the long, grueling match is a "test" of the relative strength of the two sides.

The first officially recognised Test match commenced on 15 March 1877, contested by England and Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), where Australia won by 45 runs. England won the second match (also at the MCG) by four wickets, thus drawing the series 1–1. This was not the first international cricket match, however. That was played between Canada and the United States, on 24 and 25 September 1844.

A Test match to celebrate 100 years of Test cricket was held in Melbourne from 12 to 17 March 1977. In this match, Australia beat England by 45 runs, the same margin as the first Test match in 1877, which the 1977 match was commemorating.

Shane Keith Warne (born 13 September 1969) is a former Australian international cricketer widely regarded as one of the greatest bowlers in the history of the game. In 2000, he was selected by a panel of cricket experts as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Century, the only specialist bowler selected in the quintet and the only one still playing at the time. He is also a cricket commentator and a professional poker player.

Warne played his first Test match in 1992, and his 708 wickets was the record for the most wickets taken by any bowler in Test cricket, until it was broken by Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan on 3 December 2007. He took over 1000 international wickets (in Tests and One-Day Internationals)—he was the second bowler to reach this milestone after Muttiah Muralitharan. A useful lower-order batsman, Warne also scored over 3000 Test runs, and he holds the record for most Test runs without a century. His career was plagued by scandals off the field; these included a ban from cricket for testing positive for a prohibited substance, charges of bringing the game into disrepute by accepting money from bookmakers, and sexual indiscretions.

Wasim Akram (Punjabi: وسیم اکرم; born 3 June 1966) is a former Pakistani cricketer. He is a left arm fast bowler and left-handed batsman who represented the Pakistan national cricket team in Test cricket and One Day International (ODI) matches.

Akram is regarded as one of the best fast bowlers in the history of cricket. He holds the world record for most wickets in List A cricket with 881 and is second only to Sri Lankan off-spin bowler, Muttiah Muralitharan in terms of ODI wickets with 502. He is considered to be one of the founders and perhaps the finest exponent of reverse swing bowling.

He was the first bowler to reach the 500-wicket mark in ODI cricket during the 2003 World Cup. In 2002 Wisden released its only list of best players of all time. Wasim was ranked as the best bowler in ODI of all time with a rating of 1223.5, ahead of Allan Donald, Imran Khan, Waqar Younis, Joel Garner, Glen McGrath and Muralitharan. Wasim has taken 23 4-wicket hauls in ODI in 356 matches he played. On 30 September 2009, Akram was one of five new members inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame. He is the current bowling coach of Kolkata Knight Riders.

Justin Lee Langer AM (born 21 November 1970 in Perth, Western Australia) is a former international cricketer who represented Australia in 105 Test matches and the current Assistant Coach and Batting Coach of the Australian cricket team. He was an AIS Australian Cricket Academy scholarship holder in 1990.

A left-handed batsman, his opening partnership with Matthew Hayden was one of the most successful of all time. Langer is also a solid gully fielder, and was very occasionally the wicket-keeper for the Australian one-day team. In January 2007 he retired from international cricket. He can play both aggressively and defensively, but has a reputation for grinding away.^{[citation needed]} However, Langer's Test strike rate (54.22) is superior to that of noted stroke-makers Mark Waugh (48.64) and Damien Martyn (51.41). Langer is also the highest run-scorer for Western Australia in Pura Cup/Sheffield Shield matches. On 23 July 2009, in a match against Worcestershire (whilst captaining Somerset), Langer became the highest scoring Australian in first-class cricket.

Alastair Nathan Cook, MBE (born 25 December 1984) is an English international cricket player. He is a left-handed opening batsman who plays county cricket for Essex and International cricket for England, where he is their ODI captain. Cook played for Essex's Academy and made his debut for the first XI in 2003. He has played in a variety of England's youth teams from 2000 until his call up to the Test side in 2006.

While touring in the West Indies with the ECB National Academy, Cook was called up to the England national team in India as a last-minute replacement for Marcus Trescothick and debuted with a century. Debuting at 21 years of age, Cook went on to become the youngest Englishman to reach 1,000, 2,000, 3,000, 4,000, 5,000 and 6,000 test runs, making centuries in his first Test matches against India, Pakistan, the West Indies and Bangladesh. He is also the only Englishman to score seven Test centuries before his 23rd birthday.

Despite this prodigious flurry of runs, Cook came under criticism throughout 2008 for a lack of centuries; he replied in 2009 with two centuries, as well as a score of 95 against Australia to help seal England's first victory against them at Lord's since 1934. He took seven catches in the series, including the final wicket, to win the 2009 Ashes series. After deputising as Test captain in 2010, Cook went on to play another pivotal role in retaining the 2010-11 Ashes series, breaking records by scoring the second highest number of runs in a Test series by an Englishman, including his maiden first-class double-hundred and two further hundreds, and batting for over 35 hours during the series.