There are as many as 45 Test captains who were captain in exactly one Test:
From this we come to
Captains who won their only Test:
Only 10 of the 40, the most recent being Mashrafe Mortaza. Even in his case, he was injured soon after the match started and Shakib Al Hasan was the effective captain. This was Bangladesh’s first Test win abroad, though it was against what was virtually a 3rd XI of the West Indies.
Shastri is the only such captain from India. Perhaps India’s performance in the late 80s may have been better if he had captained.
CA Smith was playing in his only Test. Later he was better known as a Hollywood actor.
Captains who lost their only Test:
Not surprisingly, the 19 members here are almost twice the number of those who won their only Test. The latest was Ben Stokes, who was substituting for Joe Root.
India has two prominent players in Borde and Pankaj Roy.
DB Carr played only in 2 Tests overall. This loss was India’s first win in any Test, which oddly enough coincided with the death of King George VI. The captain appointed for that series was the equally undistinguished ND Howard who played his only 4 Tests in that series.
AR Richards, JH Anderson and N Betancourt were playing in their only Tests.
Captains who drew their only Test:
The most recent was BA Murphy in 2001. From India there is HR Adhikari. Prominent players here include DL Murray, G Kirsten, RR Lindwall and TW Graveney.
Taberer was playing his only Test.
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