They never saw draws in Tests

As many as 118 Test players played in 5 or more matches and never saw a draw. These are the top few:

This list is headed by a current player Aiden Markram:

https://www.espncricinfo.com/player/aiden-markram-600498

Next is the 19th-century player GA Lohmann (18), England’s leading pace bowler of that time.

Then there is the near-current player KK Jennings (17) who has some chance of playing again, along with Alok Kapali with his record 17 losses. Baptiste with his 10 wins is further down.

From India there is a current player HH Pandya (11).

Other current players include SO Hetmyer (16), Hasan Ali (13), KM Jarvis (13) and TA Blundell (10).

Of course, Markram will lose his status once he plays in a drawn Test, which means that the record will go back to the venerable George Lohmann.

South Africa last had a draw in March 2017. This was followed by 34 Tests with results. Thus a number of junior Test players from there have 5 or more Tests without a draw. This applies to most of the current team.

The Test debutants of 2017

Here we review the good performances by those who made their Test debut in 2017.

Batting: 50+ in an innings:

A century and a near century. While Blundell has played only one Test after his debut, Markram continued to score well in his subsequent matches. As of Jan 31, 2018 he has a Test average of 52.00 with 2 centuries and 2 fifties. Pandya has not been so consistent, though he has an average of 33.00 with a century and 2 fifties. The others have not done much until now, though we may soon hear more about them.

We also look at debutants who scored:

75+ in a match:

Apart from Blundell, Markram and Sohail also scored over 100 runs in their debut match.

Bowling: 3wi or more:

Roland-Jones is the only one with a five-for, with Kuldeep Yadav the only other one with a four-for. While injury caused the former to miss a number of Tests, Yadav has done particularly well in limited-over matches. Roland-Jones took 17 wickets at 19.64 so far, while Yadav has 9 wickets at 20.77.

Looking at match performances:

4wm or more:

Roland-Jones has by far the best figures here, while Olivier is second.

Fielding: 2 or more dismissals in an innings:

Markram has the most catches (3) while two others have 2. Nurul Hasan is the only keeper here.

Looking at match performances:

3 or more dismissals in a match:

Markram and Nurul Hasan again. As of today Markram has 6 catches besides 520 runs in 6 Tests.

All-round performances: runs and wickets

40 runs and 4 wickets in a match:

Roland-Jones again with Overton. Roland-Jones has 82 runs and 17 wickets in 4 Tests. Overton was unfortunate to make his debut against Australia in Australia.

All-round performances: runs and dismissals

20 runs and 2 dismissals in a match:

Markram’s performance is the best here followed by that of Mosaddek.

 

 

Palindromic names for cricketers

Aiden Markram started his Test career with 97 against Bangladesh in 2017-18. His surname appears to be the longest example of a palindromic name among Test players.

The previous record (if one may call it that) was by Rangy Nanan who played one Test for the West Indies in 1980-81. There are 3-letters palindromic surnames like that of Arun Lal. The player generally known as S. Madan Lal actually had the surname Sharma.

If you count first names, the best-known may be Pakistan’s Talat Ali and India’s Naman Ojha (only one Test).

More about another odd record by Markram:  https://abn397.wordpress.com/2019/12/14/aiden-markram-is-back/

Moving away from cricket, there was the Cambodian leader Lon Nol (who was overthrown by the non-palindromic Pol Pot) and Malayalam, the language spoken in Kerala state. This state has produced relatively few international cricketers, examples being S. Sreesanth and Sanju Samson. There is also Karun Nair, though he has not spent much time in that state.

More about palindromes and palindromic surnames here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palindrome .

The longest palindrome generally known is “Able was I ere I saw Elba”, allegedly declaimed by Napoleon. Another well-known one is “A man, a plan, a canal-Panama!”

A Canadian specialty is “He peed deep, eh?”, allegedly said by one Mountie to another while examining a yellow stain in the snow.

Tail piece: Along the way I discovered the Quetta-born cricketer Arun Lal, who was one of Baluchistan’s leading first class players in his time: http://www.espncricinfo.com/pakistan/content/player/39834.html