Editing Alec Stewart (section)

==International career==
Stewart made his England debut in the first Test of the 1989/90 tour of the [[West Indies cricket team|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 (cricketer and artist)|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.
[[Image:Alec Stewart Graph.png|right|thumb|250px|Alec Stewart's career performance graph.]]

===Prominence===
His highest Test score, 190, was against [[Pakistan national cricket team|Pakistan]] in the drawn first [[Edgbaston Cricket Ground|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 cricket team|West Indies]] were beaten at their [[Kensington Oval|Bridgetown]] "fortress" for the first time since 1935.<ref>[http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack/content/story/153212.html Wisden: West Indies v England, 1993–94]</ref>

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.<ref>[http://stats.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/stats/index.html?class=1;filter=advanced;orderby=runs;qualmin3=8000;qualval3=runs;template=results;type=batting Cricinfo statsguru: batsmen who scored 8000 Test runs or more]</ref> 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.<ref>[http://stats.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/stats/index.html?batting_positionmax1=2;batting_positionval1=batting_position;class=1;filter=advanced;keeper=0;orderby=batting_average;qualmin1=30;qualval1=innings;spanmin2=1+jan+1945;spanval2=span;team=1;template=results;type=batting Cricinfo statsguru: openers by batting average since 1945]</ref> As wicketkeeper-batsman he averaged 34.92 from 82 tests, higher than many of his contemporaries. He was unlucky enough to be on the losing side in a record 54 Test Matches.

Stewart holds the record for scoring the most test runs without a career double century in test history (8463).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.howstat.com/cricket/Statistics/Batting/BattingMostCareerRunsWO100.asp?Stat=2|title=HowSTAT! Test Cricket – Most Career Runs without a Double Century|website=howstat.com|access-date=2017-03-24}}</ref>

===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. 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 national cricket team|South Africa]], Stewart scored an outstanding 164 in the third Test at [[Old Trafford (cricket)|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 national cricket team|Australia]] and in the [[1999 Cricket World Cup]] saw him sacked from the captaincy to be replaced by Hussain. During his captaincy, he dropped down the order and did not open the batting. 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 national cricket team|Pakistan]] rendered the continuation of play impossible.<ref>[http://www.cricinfo.com/england/content/story/103301.html Stewart concedes defeat after another pitch invasion]</ref> 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 cricket team|West Indies]] at [[Old Trafford (cricket)|Old Trafford]] in 2000.

Stewart also set a record for playing the most number of ODI matches(28) as a captain who has kept wicket and opened the batting.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/283397.html|title=Records {{!}} One-Day Internationals {{!}} Individual records (captains, players, umpires) {{!}} Captains who have kept wicket and opened the batting {{!}} ESPN Cricinfo|publisher=ESPNcricinfo|access-date=2017-02-17}}</ref>