Shreyas Iyer’s debut

Shreyas Iyer was the third Indian player and 40th overall to make two 50+ scores on debut:

Earlier Dilawar Hussain (59 & 57 in 1934) and SM Gavaskar (65 and 67* in 1971) had achieved this.

From the above table, we can also see that Shreyas was the first Indian player and 16th overall to score a century and a fifty+ on debut. This 16 included the special cases of LG Rowe and Yasir Hameed who scored twin centuries on debut.

CG Greenidge (93 & 107 in 1974) and AN Cook (104 & 60* in 2006) did so against India.

Now we look at the most runs made in debut Test (this is not the same as the above chart, as some would not have made 50+ in both innings.

Here the cutoff is 160 runs.

Iyer made 105 + 65 =170.

This is the third highest for India (after S Dhawan’s 187 and RG Sharma’s 177) and 28th overall. J Neesham also made 170 on debut, but is ranked above Iyer as his performance was earlier.

Also note CG Greenidge’s 200 (93 and 107) J Neesham’s 170 (33 & 137*), MJ Clarke’s 168 (151+ 17), AN Cook’s 164 (60 & 104*), DL Houghton’s 162 (121 & 41*) and CH Lloyd’s 160 (82 & 78*) against India

Another curiosity is that of the forgotten BM Laird’s 167 runs, which is the highest match total on debut by someone who did not score a century. Next are CH Lloyd and Fakhar Zaman both with 160.

And finally:

New Zealand was set to score 284 in the 4th innings to win this Test.

Guess what the highest winning chase at this venue was?

This doesn’t mean much as the Green Park has had many drawn matches, and is probably the most batting-friendly pitch among India’s older Test centres

Highest scores (on debut) at each batting position in Tests

Previously we looked at the highest scores at each batting position in Tests.

Here we look at the corresponding figures where the player is making his Test debut.

Again, there are several famous names and others who played in a small number of Tests.

No 9 is more of an outlier because Sandhu was considered to be a specialist bowler. Both No 10 and 11 in that table have scored more than him.

Agar has played in less than 5 Tests and has not come close to his 98 on debut.

Ganguly and Dravid were playing in the same Test innings. Until 2021, Ganguly had the highest score on debut while doing so at Lord’s. New Zealand’s Conway has followed him with 200.

And India has the best efforts here at No 6 and No 9.

Washington Sundar’s good start

At the time of writing, the 1st Test between India and England at Chennai has ended in defeat for the home side. Washington Sundar’s Test batting record is now 62 and 22 followed by 85* and 0, thus making two fifties in his first two Tests.

Not such a big deal, is it? 15 Indian players have made a century on Test debut (although a significant proportion of them never made another century). There are 44 instances of Indian players making at least one fifty on their debut, such as Sundar.

We now look at cases where they scored at least two scores of fifty-plus in their first two Tests. There are only 14 such instances. Let us look more closely at them.

1. Dilawar Hussain (1933-34): 59, 57; 13, 36. He and Gavaskar are the only Indian players to make two 50+ scores on Test debut.

2. DG Phadkar (1947-48): 51, 2; 55*, 13

3. AG Kripal Singh (1955-56): 100*; 63

4. SM Gavaskar (1970-71): 65, 67*; 116, 64* No less than four 50+ scores in his first two Tests. He and Dilawar are the only Indian players to score two fifties on Test debut.

5. J Arun Lal (1982-83): 63,1; 51

6. M Azharuddin (1984-85): 110; 48, 105

7. R Dravid (1996): 95; 84, 8

8. SC Ganguly (1996): 131; 136, 48 These two played their debut and second Tests together.

9. DJ Gandhi (1999-2000): 0, 75; 88, 31*

10. SK Raina (2010): 120; 62, 41*

12. RG Sharma (2013-14): 177; 111* Centuries in his first two innings, but not in the same Test.

12. PP Shaw (2018-19): 134; 70, 33*

13. MA Agarwal (2018-19): 76, 42; 77

14. W Sundar (2020-21): 62, 22; 85*,0

Some, like Dilawar, Arun Lal and Gandhi never scored a Test century.

Of these, only Gavaskar made four 50+ scores in his first two Tests. This is probably a world Test record. No one else from India made three 50+ scores in his first two Tests.

More about the Test debutants of 2019

Hope that you have read this:

https://abn397.wordpress.com/2020/01/09/the-test-debutants-of-2019/

Another point of interest is to compare the number of debutants and the number of Tests played by a team. These are summarized below:

You can see that:

New teams (Afg, Ire) are just starting out and need to try out more players.

Australia, Bangladesh and India did not need that many new players.

Among the major teams, South Africa was the most unsettled, introducing 8 new players in 8 Tests giving  a ratio of 1.000. Next are Pakistan and West Indies each with 4 new players in 6 Tests (0.667).

Next are England (0.500), Sri Lanka (0.375), New Zealand (0.250).

The Test debutants of 2019

Good performances by those who made their Test debut in 2019:

Batting:

40 or more in an innings:

One century was made by Pakistan’s Abid Ali. He scored another century in his second Test.

The next highest was by I Zadran of Afghanistan.

DJ Mitchell did not play in the Aus-NZ series which followed his debut.

van der Dussen scored another fifty (68) in his second Test. He had also done well in the World Cup before his Test debut.

Muthusamy played only 2 Tests and does not seem to be in the running now.

80 or more in the match:

Zadran also scored over a hundred on debut. Muthusamy scored 82 without being dismissed.

Bowling:

4 or more wickets in an innings:

Embuldeniya has added a 4-for to his 5-for on debut.

Linde has not played in a Test after his debut.

Amir Hamza’s team has not played a Test after his debut. He also made 34.

6 or more wickets in a match:

While JA Richardson (with the curious forename of Jhye) did well on debut, he was not considered for Australia’s Tests later in the year. He is a regular for 20 and 50 over cricket.

Embuldeniya is now a regular, while Adair and Hamza await their side’s infrequent Tests.

Fielding:

3 dismissals in an innings:

Not much heard about them, although Klaasen had been a regular in 20 and 50 over cricket.

5 dismissals in an match:

Alikhil still awaits another Test for Afghanistan, and has played in 50-over cricket.

Patterson also scored a century in his second Test, but does not find a place in the current Australian side.

All-round:

40 runs and 4 wickets:

Only Linde, who is not in the current SA team.

30 runs and 3 dismissals:

I Zadran did well as a fielder, although Patterson may not add to his 2 Tests for a while.

The most promising of the newcomers seem to be Abid Ali, van der Dussen, Embuldeniya and Amir Hamza. Others have not done much, particularly as some teams have limited opportunities.

 

 

 

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.

Two fifties in a match in India-WI Tests

GH Vihari became the latest to make two scores of 50+ in a Test for India against the Wes Indies. Here is the full list of those who have achieved this:

This includes 3 matches of Gavaskar in the 1971 series, where he made his debut on 06/03/1971. He is the only debutant here.

In 1962, Umrigar added a fiver to his two fifty-plus scores.

Two cases of centuries in both innings by Gavaskar (1971 and 1978).

The corresponding performances for the West Indies against India:

Only 23 such performances, compared to 33 by India.

They include Weekes’s pair of centuries in 1948, as part of his five in  successive innings.

And Sobers added a fiver to his century and fifty in 1962.

Lloyd and Greenidge were making their debuts.

Only Weekes made centuries in both innings.

The Test debutants of 2018

The last of a series of reviews of Test cricket in 2018. Here we identify the good performances on Test debut.

Batting:

40 runs or more in an innings:

3 centuries headed by PP Shaw, and numerous other 50s.

There are several instances of 40+ in both innings, with Fakhar Zaman with 50+ in both innings. This will be seen more clearly here:

80 runs or more in match:

Fakhar Zaman’s 160 shares the second place among those who made two scores between 50 and 99 on debut.

The most is by the lesser-known BM Laird with 167 (Aus v WI, 1979-80) followed by CH Lloyd with 160 (WI v Ind, 1966-67).

Bowling:

3 or more wickets in an innings:

5 instances of fivers, led by Bilal Asif and L Ngidi. Vihari and Bumrah took 3-fors for India. Ireland has TJ Murtagh and SR Thompson in their debut Test, while Yamin Ahmadzai represents Afghanistan on their debut.

6 or more wickets in match:

Dananjaya’s 8-44 is the best for Sri Lanka on debut. The previous record was 8-132 by BAW Mendis (SL v Ind, 2008). Ireland has TJ Murtagh in their debut Test. Bilal Asif took 6 in the first innings and none in the second.

Fielding:

2 or more dismissals in an innings:

RR Pant leads here. His 5 dismissals equaled the record for India, though Yajurvindra Singh was a non-keeper. 3 Indian keepers made 4 dismissals in an innings on debut, all in the 1950s.

3 or more dismissals in a match:

RR Pant leads again with 7 dismissals. No one else has more than 3. MA Agarwal is one of those who took 3 as a non-keeper

Pant’s 7 dismissals equaled the Indian record with non-keeper Yajurvindra Singh. Several Indian keepers took 5 on debut, along with non-keepers RR Singh (only Test) and SS Das.

All-round performances:

30 runs and 3 wickets in match:

3 instances, with probably SR Thompson’s being the best.

30 runs and 3 dismissals:

3 instances, with Foakes being the only keeper and MA Agarwal having the best by a non-keeper. Also note MS Harris’s 26 and 26.

Two fifties on debut

Centuries on debut are well documented. Here we look at those who made two fifties (between 50 and 99) on debut, and then those who scored two scores of 50+ on debut.

Fakhar Zaman with 160 runs is in joint second place here with Clive Lloyd while the list is headed by the lesser-known Bruce Laird.

Gavaskar and Dilawar represent India, while there are current and near-current players such as Tamim Iqbal, Chandimal, Henriques and Pietersen.

GC Grant is the only one with two unbeaten fifties on debut.

There are, of course, numerous cases of one fifty and one hundred on debut, and even two cases of two hundreds on debut (LG Rowe and Yasir Hameed).

Here are the complete list of those who scored two scores of 50+ on debut.

Azhar Mahmood is the only one with an unbeaten 100 and an unbeaten 50.

Fifty on Test debut by Indian players (Sep 2018)

Centuries on Test debut are well documented:

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/239555.html

Here we look at those who scored  one or more scores of 50 to 99 on debut.

Indian players:

Some points of note:

Dilawar Hussain and SM Gavaskar scored fifties in each innings on debut.

The Yuvaraj of Patiala (father of current Punjab CM Amarinder Singh) was playing in his only Test.

A few of these players went on to successful careers, notably Amar Singh, Mankad, Phadkar, Nadkarni, Gavaskar, Dravid, Laxman and Pujara.

But here are quite a few who ended their careers with 5 or less Tests and/or are forgotten to most cricket fans. These include the 2-Test players Kanitkar (senior), P Roy (junior), Rajput and Badrinath.

The jury is still out on Pandya. Let us hope that Vihari and MA Agarwal do better.

It is also worthwhile to look at all such Test players since 2014:

Note fifties in both innings by MDKJ Perera and Fakhar Zaman.

The most successful among these include MDK Perera, MDKJ Perera, JO Holder, Dickwella, Buttler,  Pandya, Markram, Imam, Fakhar, MA Agarwal and Finch. And there are several others who are unlikely to play Tests again.

Alastair Cook’s career-1

In the next few days, much will be written about Alastair Cook’s career and records. Here, we look back at his Test debut which was against India in 2006:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/series/14681/scorecard/239025/india-vs-england-1st-test-england-tour-of-india-2005-06

Other debutants included Monty Panesar and S. Sreesanth, who remained in the headlines one way or another for a period almost as long as Cook’s career.

Cook is one of a handful of players to have scored two fifties on Test debut. This is somewhat rarer than scoring a century on debut.

While some on this list are counted among the all-time greats, others did not have much of a career and are completely forgotten.

The Rishabh and Rahul show

(Figures as on August 23, 2018)

While Virat Kohli was Man of the Match, the twin fielding feats of Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul played a large part in India’s victory at Nottingham.

First we look at fielding performances on debut, with reference to Rishabh:

Innings fielding on debut:

Rishabh’s 5 dismissals is the best for India on debut by a wicketkeeper, though Yajurvindra had taken 5 as a non-keeper. A few Indian keepers had earlier taken 4 catches in an innings on their debut.

Match fielding on debut:

Here, both Rishabh and Yajurvindra made 7 dismissals on debut. Rishabh’s 7 is the best by any Indian keeper on debut. Some Indian keepers had made 5 dismissals on debut.

Note that Yajurvindra’s 5 in the innings and 7 in the match remain the best by any debutant non-keeper.

We look at fielding performances by non-keepers.

(This is for all matches, not merely on debut).

Innings fielding:

The world record is 5, shared by the fielders listed above. The first to achieve this was VY Richardson, maternal grandfather of the Chappell brothers. Several current and recent players can be seen. KL Rahul is one of many who took 4 catches (in the 4th innings, to add to the 3 he took in the first innings).

Match fielding:

While current player Rahane is the only one to take 8 catches in a match (which, by the way, India lost), KL Rahul is one of several to take 7 catches. Note that no one had taken 7 catches in a match until Greg Chappell in 1974.