Ten wickets on Test debut and never again

(Updated on 15 May 2021):

Some achievements on debut are more difficult than others.

As may as 110 centuries have been scored on debut, as well as 169 five-fors. In a few cases the player has scored two centuries or took two fivers in his debut Test.

But only 16 have taken ten wickets in their first Test:

The last entrant is Praveen Jayawickrama of Sri Lanka, who has played only one Test so far.

But the members of this exclusive club have not been fortunate. A quick overview:

We can see that:

Marriott played only one Test. Newcomer Jayawickrama has also played only one so far.

However, a total of 12 of these 16 never took a ten-for after their debut. The only ones who did so were T Richardson (total 4 times), Grimmett (7), Bedser (5) and Valentine (4)

And 7 of the 16 never even took a five-for after their debut.

Perhaps Jayawickrama will be able to overcome these odds.

Also, JK Lever is the only one to take a ten-for along with a fifty on debut. He never made another fifty, although he did add two five-fors to his 7-49 on debut.

While Ken Farnes did add one five-for to the two he took on debut, he died young in a flying accident during WW2.

Incidentally, Jayawickrama’s 11-178 is the best by a left-arm spinner on debut, surpassing the 11-204 by AL Valentine in 1950.

Four wickets in an innings on debut and never again

In earlier posts we have covered topics such as:

https://abn397.wordpress.com/2019/09/26/century-on-debut-and-never-again/

https://abn397.wordpress.com/2019/10/26/50-plus-on-test-debut-and-never-again/

https://abn397.wordpress.com/2019/10/11/five-wickets-in-an-innings-and-never-again/

We now extend this to four (or more) wickets in an innings on debut and never again:

Four+ wickets in innings

A total of 96 players took four or more wickets in an innings on debut. Of these, 11 took four or more in each innings. Those listed here never took a four+ again.

You can see the famous cases of CS Marriott (11 wickets in his only Test) and others with a 10-for on debut (SF Burke, HHH Johnson, F Martin and Mohammad Zahid) who did not even manage a four-for later.  Also WH Ashley with a 7-for in his only innings bowled. Most had rather short careers.

The best innings performances here are 8-215 (JJ Krezja), 7-81 (M de Lange) and 7-95 (WH Ashley).

Then there was the strange case of the two unrelated players SA Banerjee and SN Banerjee who both took 4wi on debut in the 1948-49 I vs WI series and never played again.