KL Rahul’s feat in perspective

Here is a list of all those who have scored 75 or more on their ODI debut:

It can be seen that Rahul is 11th on this list, and the only one to have scored a neat 100. Just below him is SP Patil of the UAE with 99 not out. While there have been  three 99s on Test debut, none of them were unbeaten. In fact there are no unbeaten 90s on Test debut.

SP Fleming was out in the 90s both on Test and ODI debut. Andy Flower, Desmond Haynes and Praveen Amre are among others who made a fifty-plus on both Test and ODI debut.

Note the big gap between the highest score here (148) and the next (124).

There is at least one case (Shahid Afridi, 102 in 1996) who scored a century in his first ODI innings (in the then record of 37 balls), not having batted in the first. Similarly Yuvraj Singh scored 80 in his first innings in his second ODI in 2000.

Here we see the list of  all Indian players with 40 or more on debut, which was headed by Uthappa and now by Rahul:

Patel and Wadekar scored their fifties in India’s first-ever ODI, while Ashok Mankad followed in the very next match. Sidhu is the only one here to do this in a World Cup match (1987), while PK Amre is the only one to score fifty-plus on Test as well as ODI debut. Both of them came against South Africa soon after its comeback, in an ODI in 1991-92 and a Test in 1992-93.

 

 

Making the most of limited chances-batting

There are many unfortunates who got a chance to play exactly one Test (or ODI or T20I). Some of them did well enough to deserve more chances but somehow this never happened. We look at the batsmen who made the most of their chances in limited Test opportunities, and then in ODIs and T20Is.

Scoring at least one fifty in their only Test:

Of these, only Redmond scored a hundred and a fifty, and Ganteaume scored a hundred. SC Cook played his only Test so far in 2016 and should get off this list soon. Ronchi is the only one to score over 100 runs without a century, while three others scored over 90.

There are various reasons why they did not play again. Eyesight issues were the main reason for Rodney Redmond not playing again. His son Aaron Redmond played 8 Tests in recent years with a top score of 83.

Zulqarnain Haider stopped playing for Pakistan under peculiar circumstances. Cook and (perhaps) Ronchi should play again. India’s sole representative the Yuvraj of Patiala (also known as Yadavindra Singh) dropped out of cricket to concentrate on politics, though he might well have captained India in the 1936 tour of England where he would certainly done better than Vizzy. His son Amarinder Singh is still active in the politics of Punjab state.

Now we look at

Scoring at least 50 runs in their only Test:

This includes a few others who made 50 or more runs without a fifty. The highest total among these is JK Moss with 60. There is also Humayun Farhat, who did score 54 runs in his only Test but also became the only wicket keeper who did not make a single dismissal in his career. (There are some other keepers who did not make any dismissal on their debut).

Scoring at least fifty in their only Test innings:

Ganteaume and Stollmeyer lead here. Albie Morkel probably deserved to play a few more Tests, but is now unlikely to get another chance. And McGirr played his only  innings in his 2nd and last Test, as he did not get to bat on his debut. Law is the only one in these tables to remain unbeaten in his short Test career. His fellow Australian debutant RT Ponting went on to bigger things.

Now for ODI matches:

30 or more runs in their only ODI:

Barnett and Woodcock are the only ones to score fifties, though there are several others close behind. Some of them were moderately successful in Tests, such as AV Mankad.

30 or more runs in their only ODI innings:

We get exactly the same list as above.

Now for T20Is:

20 or more runs in only T20I:

India’s lesser-known S Badrinath has the highest score here. Dinesh Mongia’s only T20I was India’s first. Some prominent Test and ODI players such as Dravid, Ganga, Gillespie and North find a place here, along with the hapless Reifer who was once asked by journalists “Are you smoking something which sounds like your name?”. This was at that the time he captained a West Indies C Team which gave Bangladesh its first two Test victories away from home.

20 or more runs in only T20I innings:

We get exactly the same result.

To be continued with bowling, fielding and all-round performance in their only match or innings.

 

 

Same score in both innings

It is fairly well known that Duleep Mendis scored 105 and 105 in a Test against India, and that this is the highest case of identical innings in a Test. Here we look at all such cases above 50. We have considered both dismissals and not outs.

Same score in both innings (Excel)

Or (in a compressed form):

None of these instances were on debut. The highest such double on debut was 36 and 36 by the lesser-known South African Dan Taylor. All such instances above 25 + 25 are given here:

Abid Ali also took 6 wickets in an innings (and 7 in the match).

A more detailed post on same scores in each innings on debut (as of May 2015) can be seen here: https://abn397.wordpress.com/2015/05/02/an-unusual-record-same-score-in-both-innings-in-debut/

Most runs in Tests in first calendar year

As the statistically-minded would have noted, Adam Voges scored a century on Test debut in June and went on to complete 1000 runs by the end of 2015. He thus completed 1000 Test runs in the calendar year of his debut, becoming only the third to achieve this. This is not to be confused with scoring 1000+ Test runs in the first 365 days after his debut.

The only ones to have achieved this are:

MA Taylor (Aus)        1219@ 64.15       1989

AC Voges (Aus)          1028@ 85.66        2015

AN Cook (Eng)           1013@  46.04       2006

The only Test players from India who scored over 500 runs in the calendar year of their debut:

SM Gavaskar          918@ 83.45    1971

S Ramesh                843@ 49.58    1999

VG Kambli              793@113.28   1993

Yashpal Sharma   591@ 39.40      1979

SC Ganguly            504@ 50.40      1996

It helps, of course, if you make your debut in the early part of the year (though Voges, Yashpal and Ganguly made their debuts in mid-year).

Update:

Spare a thought for M. Azharuddin, who had the misfortune to make his debut in a Test starting on 31 Dec 1984. He made 110 runs in Tests starting in 1984 and 495 in Tests starting in 1985.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Best bowling figures on debut

After seeing the travails of Adil Rashid, Jason Krezja and others we turn to something more positive-the best bowling figures on debut. We have already seen that a poor debut does not always stand in the way of a long and successful career (Bradman with his 18 and 1  and Hutton with 0 and 1 would be prime examples).

These figures are up to the end of the recent Tests at Abu Dhabi and Galle.

Best innings bowling on debut:

First on the list is Australia’s Albert Trott, who added 38* and 72* to his 8-wicket haul. He also scored 85* in the next Test. However, he played only 3 Tests for Australia, 2 more for England and died in tragic circumstances (an euphemism for depression leading to suicide).

Another Australian Bob Massie made an unexpected 16-wicket haul at Lord’s but could not do much afterwards, though his tailend batting did help to win one Test against Pakistan. He did not take a 5-for after his debut and ended with 6 Tests.

India’s Narendra Hirwani was somewhat more fortunate than Massie, but never could repeat anything close to his devastation of a fairly strong West Indies team. He even went on to become a national selector.

Lance Klusener’s debut was somewhat similar to that of Rashid as he took 0-75 followed by 8-64. However, for most of his career he was considered more of a batting all-rounder. He was the man of the tournament in the 1999 World Cup.

TK Kendall took 7/55 in the very first Test. Note the 4-ball overs.

Then we have our old friends Krezja and Valentine whose bowling could not prevent defeats for their teams. Some other famous names like Bedser, Laker and Sammy of more recent vintage are there. South Africa’s WH Ashley played in only one Test; he is the only one to take a five-for in his only innings.

We now look at match bowling figures on debut:

Hirwani heads this list, though his analysis is just one run ahead of Massie’s. The record of 12-102 by Fred “Nutty” Martin was the best by a debutant from 1890 to 1972, though his career ended after 2 Tests. Well-known names such as Grimmett, Bedser, Valentine, Peter Pollock, Alderman and Laker are well represented here, besides current players like M Shami and R Ashwin.

One curiosity is CS Marriott, who is the only one to take a 10-for in his only Test. JK Lever is the only one to add a fifty to his 10 wickets on debut. And HHH Johnson is the only Test player to have three repeating initials in his name; coincidentally he played in only 3 Tests.

R Berry made his debut along with Ramadhin and Valentine. Though he was instrumental in winning that Test, the other two ensured that the West Indies won the next three Tests.

In general, it appears that performance on debut has relatively little to do with long-term performance both for batsmen and bowlers. I suppose that a rigorous statistical analysis with t-tests and the like would prove this more conclusively.

An unusual record-same score in both innings in debut

There was much fine batting on display in the recent Test between Bangladesh and Pakistan at Khulna, as we can see here:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/bangladesh-v-pakistan-2015/engine/match/858493.html

A minor point of interest was Soumya Sarkar getting 33 in both innings on debut. One would wonder if this is the highest such instance. It is not, though it has come close to the Test record of 36 by the little-known Dan Taylor of South Africa: http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/47533.html

He did have a famous brother in Herb Taylor who captained South Africa.

Here is the full list of batsmen making the same score in both innings on debut. The list is surprisingly long, mostly populated by pairs of zeroes and other low scores. After Dan Taylor, S. Abid Ali and Soumya Sarkar follow with 33 in both innings. Abid Ali also took 6-55 and a total of 7 wickets in the match.

If you look at scores above 50, the nearest approach is 65 and 67* by SM Gavaskar (1971) and 59 and 57 by Dilawar Hussain (1934). A few others are separated by 4 or 5 runs, the highest being 82 and 78* by CH Lloyd (1966).

Also note the numerous batsmen of note who failed to score in their first test, such as Ramchand, Gooch, Rutherford, Atapattu, Saeed Anwar as well as other prominent players such as Valentine, Wasim Akram, Allan Donald and Malinga.