Shining on Test debut

Many have done well on their Test debut. Here is a brief summary of the numbers:

Century on debut : 110 players have scored 112 centuries on their Test debut. This includes LG Rowe and Yasir Hameed who each scored two centuries on debut.

Double centuries on debut: Out of the 112 centuries mentioned above, only 7 were double centuries, headed by RE Foster’s 287 of long ago and with today’s D Conway at the bottom with exactly 200.

5 wickets in an innings: 101 players have taken 5wi on debut 112 times. 11 had taken two fivers on debut. The best innings figure is 8-43 by AE Trott

10 wickets in a match: 10wm on debut has been achieved by 17 players. This includes the 11 mentioned in the entry before this, besides others with combinations like 6+4 or 7+3. The two best performances are 16-136 by ND Hirwani, followed by 16-135 by RAL Massie.

So a double century on debut is the most difficult to achieve. However, as many as 13 players have made 200 runs in their debut match, headed by LG Rowe with 314 (214 + 100*). Next is RE Foster with 306 (287 + 19).

We will look deeper into 10wm on debut shortly. This category has found it most difficult to replicate their debut feat.

Centuries in both innings of a Test-Part 2

Hope you have seen Part 1: https://abn397.wordpress.com/2022/11/21/centuries-in-both-innings-of-a-test-part-1/

Going into more depth, we find there are 5 instances of players making their only two Test centuries in the same match :

1. J Moroney (Aus), 118 and 101* v SA, Johannesburg, 1950
2. Wajahatullah Wasti (Pak), 133 and 121* v SL, Lahore, 1999
3. Yasir Hameed (Pak), 170 and 105 v BD. Karachi, 2003 (on debut)
4. PG Fulton (NZ), 136 and 110 v Eng, Auckland, 2013
5. SD Hope (WI), 147 and 118* v Eng, Leeds, 2017

Points to note:

Wasti was playing in his 2nd Test.

Hope was the first to make centuries in both innings of a first-class match at Leeds, the home ground of several prolific batsmen such as Herb Sutcliffe, Len Hutton and Geoff Boycott.

Yasir Hameed made his only two Test centuries on his debut.

Apart from those listed above, here are those who made their first two Test centuries in the same match :

1. W Bardsley (Aus), 136 and 130 v Eng, Oval, 1909
2. VS Hazare (Ind), 116 and 145 v Aus, Adelaide, 1948
3. LG Rowe (WI), 214 and 100* v NZ, Kingston, 1972 (on debut)
4. GP Howarth (NZ), 122 and 102 v Eng, Auckland, 1978
5. LRD Mendis (SL), 105 and 105 v Ind, Chennai, 1982
6. PJ Hughes (Aus), 115 and 160 v SA, Durban, 2009
7. Imam-ul-Haq (Pak), 157 and 111* v Aus, Rawalpindi , 2022

Notes:

LRD Mendis was the first to make identical scores above 100 in both innings.

LG Rowe is the only one to score a century and double century on debut.

Imam-ul-Haq moved from the first list to the second list after he made his 3rd century in Dec 2022-which was also at Rawalpindi

Centuries in both innings of a Test-Part 1

It is easy to get a list of those who have achieved this using Statsguru:

https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/stats/index.html?class=1;filter=advanced;orderby=player;qualmax1=2;qualmin1=2;qualval1=hundreds;size=100;template=results;type=batting;view=match

This has been done on 89 occasions in all Tests.

Bradman did it once. Tendulkar never did.

3 players did it on 3 occasions: SM Gavaskar, RT Ponting and DA Warner.

11 others did it on 2 occasions, including R Dravid.

58 others did it on one occasion.

This is a fairly rare occurrence, but seems to have become more frequent in recent times.

LG Rowe and Yasir Hameed are the only ones to score two centuries on their debut. Hameed never scored a century again.

There are some who have scored their only two centuries in a single Test. And some others who scored their first two centuries in a single Test.

Read more in Part 2.

Centuries in both innings of a Test-Part 2

Review of Bangladesh-Pakistan Tests (Dec 2021)

Tests between these sides have invariably been one-sided, as you can see in this list below:

Pakistan has won 12 of these 13 Tests with one draw.

In Bangladesh, Pakistan leads 7-0 with 1 draw.

In Pakistan, Pakistan leads 5-0.

The one exception to heavy defeats was at Multan in 2003 where Bangladesh came within one wicket of defeating Pakistan. Inzamam (in his home town) was able to scrape through a 1-wicket win here.

We now look at individual scores, starting with Batting:

Most runs (minimum 400):

Azhar Ali has the highest total among current players, followed by Shakib Al Hasan.

The most centuries are 3 by M Hafeez and Younis Khan. The most 50+ scores are 7 by Habibul Bashar (who had only one century). Next are Taufeeq Umar and Shakib with 5 each.

Highest innings (minimum 100):

Abid Ali and Liton Das scored centuries in the just-concluded series.

Yasir Hameed scored centuries in both innings on his Test debut, but never made another century.

There is not enough data (minimum 20 innings) for calculating batting averages.

But we can find batting strike rates (for those with a minimum of 1000 balls faced).

Younis Khan leads 4 Pakistani players here.

Now for Bowling.

Most wickets (minimum 10 wickets):

Current player Taijul Islam (22) has the most for Bangladesh, although Danish Kaneria has the most with 34. Umar Gul also has 22. Newcomers Sajid Khan and SS Afridi are also here.

Best innings bowling (all 6wi and above):

Sajid Khan’s 8-42 is now the best in this series, surpassing Danish’s 7-77.

Taijul Islam now has the best innings figures for Bangladesh (7-116) surpassing Shakib’s 6-82.

Best match bowling (including all 8wm):

Here Sajid Khan’s 12-128 is second to Danish’s 12-94.

In this series, Taijul Islam had the best figures for Bangladesh (8-205).

Best bowling averages-not enough data as no one has bowled 2000 balls.

Fielding records:

Most dismissals (Minimum 8):

Rashid Latif has by far the most dismissals (26). Next is Khaled Mashud with 9.

Among fielders, Azhar Ali and Younis Khan have 8 each. Mahmudullah has 7.

Innings dismissals (Minimum 4):

Match dismissals (Minimum 5):

Rashid Latif again leads with 7 dismissals, while Shadab Kabir had 5 as a fielder.

All-round match performance (Minimum 50+ and 5-for):

Here we have the best performance by a Bangladesh player, with Shakib scoring 144 and taking 6-82).

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

Century on debut and never again (May 2021)

Scoring a century on Test debut is not as difficult as one may think. As many as 108 players have scored 110 centuries on their Test debut, including LG Rowe and Yasir Hameed who scored centuries in both innings.

There are several who failed to score a century after their debut. The full list (up to 15/05/2021) is given below.

Players can drop off this list (as Fawad Alam did after over 11 years). Some current players (from PP Shaw downwards) can be reasonably expected to score another century sooner or later.

The most Tests played here are 25 by Yasir Hameed and 24 by L Amarnath. The latter was an useful bowler and a relatively better captain (by Indian standards of those days).

The most 50s scored after debut are 8 by Yasir Hameed and 7 by SK Raina. The latter was more successful in limited-overs matches, and was one of the first to score a century in a T20I.

Now we look at those who never crossed 50 after their debut.

Ganteaume played in only one innings. RE Redmond is not here as he scored a century and a fifty in his only Test.

The most Tests played among these players are 12 by van Zyl and 10 by DR Smith.

Fawad Alam (again!) got off this list after over 11 years.

There do not seem to be any current players here.