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JOHANNESBURG. — Hashim Amla, just like the Chevrons, made their Test debut against India.

The Chevrons’ first Test match came in 1992, while Amla’s first Test match came in November 2004.

But, today, after just 13 years in the game, Amla will play his 100th Test match.

The Chevrons had to wait for 24 years just to play their 100th Test match against Sri Lanka last year.

That puts into perspective the gulf that exists between the big teams, like the Proteas, who get a number of Test matches and the minnows, like the Chevrons, who now struggle for such games.

Amla made his debut against India at the Eden Gardens in 2004, but got dropped soon after, owing to a string of poor scores.

He returned to the national team following the forced absence of Herschelle Gibbs against New Zealand in Cape Town in 2006.

Since then, he has been the mainstay of the South African middle-order along side the likes of Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers and Faf du Plessis.

A look into his career

through numbers:

8 — Amla will become the eighth player to represent South Africa in 100 Test matches. The others in the list are Kallis (165 Tests), Mark Boucher (146), Graeme Smith (116), Shaun Pollock (108), AB de Villiers (106), Gary Kirsten (101) and Makhaya Ntini (101). At 33 years and 287 days, Amla will be the second-oldest South African to reach the landmark after Kirsten (36y 116d). He has also taken the maximum time since debut to reach the landmark — 12 years and 46 days — among other South African players.

3 — Players with more runs than Amla for South Africa after 99 Tests. However, his 25 centuries is the joint-most by anyone for the Proteas alongside Kallis.

3 — Amla scored 490 runs in three innings during South Africa’s tour of India in 2010. He was only the fourth player to do so in a two-Test series and only the second player to do it in a series away from home.

65.62 – Amla’s average in Test matches between January 2010 and December 2014. Among the 66 batsmen who scored over 1 000 runs during this period, only Shivnarine Chanderpaul averages more than Amla – 67.71. Amla scored 4 069 runs in this period, which was only behind Alastair Cook (4769), Michael Clarke (4506) and Kumar Sangakkara (4446).

11 — After starting off 2015 with a 63 against West Indies, Amla played out 11 innings without adding another 50. It is the longest such sequence for him in his career. Since his last 50 in August 2016, he is currently going through a lean patch without scoring a 50 in 10 innings.

201 — by Amla against England in Cape Town in 2016 is the highest score by any player in his final Test while leading the side. Overall, seven players have scored a hundred in their final Test as captain but Amla is the only one to go past 200.

4 — Double hundreds scored by Amla is the second-most for South Africa after Graeme Smiths tally of five. He is also South Africa’s only triple centurion. He scored an unbeaten 311 against England at the Oval in 2012.

71.50 — Amla’s average against New Zealand, his highest against any opposition. He scored 1001 runs against them from 11 Tests with four hundreds and six 50s. Incidentally, he will be playing his 100th Test against the team who he struggled the most with an average of 33.46 from nine Tests against Sri Lanka.

1 202 — Runs scored by Amla from 11 Tests in Centurion at an average of 80.13.Among those who scored at least 1 000 runs at a South African venue, no one averages more than Amlas 80.13 at the Super Sport Park.

59.48 — Amla’s average in the third innings of a Test match, the best he averages in any innings.

Among those players with a minimum of 1 500 runs in the third innings, his average is the seventh-best. For South Africa, only Jacques Kallis (65.26) averages more than Amla in the third innings of a Test.

6558 — runs scored by Amla at first drop is the fourth-most for any player after Kumar Sangakkara (1 1679), Rahul Dravid (10 524) and Ricky Ponting (9 904). The next best for anyone from South Africa is 3 335 by Kallis.

7 — Most number of dismissals for him against a bowler — seven times each to Mitchell Johnson and Stuart Broad.However, he averaged 42 against Johnson and 43 against Broad. — Sports Reporter/CricBuzz.