Following the second Test at Lord’s, there were some snide remarks directed at Adil Rashid who did not bat, bowl or take a catch in the match. He had however scored a few runs and took 3 wickets in the first Test.
It is fairly common to end a match without runs, wickets or dismissals, particularly when rain affects a large portion of the match. In 2018 alone six Test players have experienced this, including Kuldeep Yadav and Murali Vijay in the same Test.
An afterthought: Lakmal was captain in that Test. Probably we should exclude captains from a listing like this.
Is there anyone who never scored a run, took a wicket or made a fielding dismissal in his entire Test career? Yes, more than you may guess.
A total of 21 players, of whom only TAP Sekhar played 2 Tests and the rest never got another chance.
The only one who did not bat or bowl at all was JCW MacBryan in 1924, who was a victim of a badly rain-affected Test where his side never got to bat and the opponents also got less than a day to bat.
What of those who never batted or bowled in their career but at least made one dismissal?
There is only one instance:
This was wicketkeeper V Rajindernath who made 4 stumpings (but took no catches) in his only Test.
In ODIs and T20Is there are more such cases. One instance related to the current Sri Lankan player Akila Dananjaya who did not bat, bowl or field in his first ODI (mainly as he never came into bat before rain prevented the opponents from batting). Still, he is now one of his team’s key players in Test and limited-overs matches.
This was the scorecard of his debut ODI:
abn397 