10 wickets on Test debut-and never again

These are the 17 players who took 10 or more wickets on their Test debut:

Of these 17, only 4 (Richardson, Grimmett, Bedser and Valentine took 10wn again. The other 13 did not.

In fact, some did not even take a 5-for again.

Summarising the performance of the 17 players listed above:

1. F Martin. Played only 2 Tests. No further 10wm or 5wi.
2. T Richardson. Took a total of 4 10wm.
3. AE Hall. No further 10wm, 2 further 5wi.
4. CV Grimmett. Took a total of 7 10wm, the best among this group of players.
5. CS Marriott. Played only 1 Test, hence no further 10wm or 5wi.
6. K Farnes. No further 10wm, 1 further 5wi
7. AV Bedser. Took a total of 5 10wms. This included 11wm in both his first and second Tests.
8. HHH Johnson. Played only 3 Tests. No further 10wm or 5wi.
9. AL Valentine. Took a total of 2 10wms.
10. SF Burke. Played only 2 Tests. Did not take any wicket after debut.
11. RAL Massie. No further 10wm or 5wi.
12. JK Lever. No further 10wm, 2 further 5wi.
13. ND Hirwani. No further 10wm, 2 further 5wi.
14. Mohammad Zahid. No further 10wm or 5wi.
15. JJ Krejza. Played only 2 Tests. Took only 1 wkt in his second Test.
16. P Jayawickrama. No further 10wm or 5wi.
17. P Jayasuriya. Played only 3 Tests so far. Took no further 10wm, but did take a total of 4 5wi.

We see that several of these players played 3 or less Tests. Marriott played only one Test.

Hirwani’s 16-135 is the best match bowling for India, just surpassing Massie’s 16-136 which is the best for Australia.

Bedser and Massie achieved this feat at Lord’s.

Also see https://abn397.wordpress.com/2022/11/27/shining-on-test-debut/

10 wickets on Test debut (July 2022)

You know the veteran Sanath (ST) Jayasuriya.

You may know the lesser-known ODI player Shehan Jayasurya (whose initials are GSNFG)

Now there is Prabath Jayasuriya, whose name is almost as fearsome (initials NGRP):

https://www.espncricinfo.com/player/prabath-jayasuriya-422871

He took 6 + 6 =12 wickets on his Test debut at Galle in July 2022, bringing an innings victory and 1-1 result for his team.

Here we look at all those who took 10 or more wickets on Test debut:

Prabodh’s 12-177 is the 4th best match haul in all Tests on debut, and the best for Sri Lanka (surpassing P Jayawickrama’s 11-178 in 2021. Remember that Hirwani and Massie are still at the top.

We also look at the best innings figures for Sri Lanka in Tests on debut:

Prabodh’s 6-59 is the best for Sri Lanka on debut, surpassing P Jayawickrama’s 6-92 in 2021.

His 6-118 in the first innings is the third best for Sri Lanka.

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.

Ten wickets on Test debut

We have earlier seen that as many as 105 players have scored a century on Test debut. 40 of them never scored a century again, and 19 did not even score a fifty again.

We follow the same theme here with the feat of 10 wickets in the match on debut (Fivers on debut will be dealt with separately).

Ten-wicket hauls on debut are far rarer than centuries on debut-since there are only 15 such instances up to 30 Sep 2019.

The column “Inngs” indicates the breakup of wickets in the innings – for example F Martin took 6 wickets in each innings. Clearly it is possible to take 10 wickets with only one fiver, as in the case of Bedser (7 and 4) or Valentine (8 and 3).

Hirwani (16-136) just edged out Massie’s record of 16-137. These remain the best match figures for India and Australia. The only better Test figures are 19-90 by Laker and 17-159 by SF Barnes. The only other 16-wicket haul is by Muralitharan (16-220).

From the last three columns we can see that CS Marriott played only one Test, and Martin, Burke and Krezja only two.

The more durable ones were Bedser (51 Tests), Grimmett (37)  and Valentine (36).

And that 11 of these 15 (i.e. all except Richardson (4), Grimmett (7), Bedser (5) and Valentine (2) ) did not ever take a ten-wicket haul again. They are listed here:

The most durable among these were JK Lever (21 Tests), Hirwani (17) and Farnes (15). Farnes was one of the casualties of WW2. Lever remains the only one to take ten wickets and score a fifty on debut. He did not score a fifty again.

And these 7 players never even took a fiver after their debut:

Massie survived the longest with 6 Tests, followed by Zahid with 5.