For a cricketer to score a century (100 runs or more) on his Test match debut is considered a notable achievement, [1] and as of 13 July 2023, it has been accomplished 115 times by 113 players. [2] Two of those players, Lawrence Rowe and Yasir Hameed, have scored centuries in both innings of their debut match. [3] Players representing 11 of the Test-playing nations (all except Afghanistan) have scored centuries on Test debut. [2]
In the first Test match played, between Australia and England in March 1877, Charles Bannerman became the first player to score a century in Test cricket. In a match in which no other player scored more than 20 runs in either innings for Australia, Bannerman scored 165 not out. [4] That score remained the highest on debut until R. E. Foster scored 287 for England against Australia in 1903. Foster's innings was the highest score in Test cricket until 1930, and remains the highest score amongst Test debutants. [3] His double-century is one of seven made on Test debut, the other six were scored by Lawrence Rowe, Brendon Kuruppu, Mathew Sinclair, Jacques Rudolph, Kyle Mayers and Devon Conway. [2] Nine players (Bill Ponsford, Doug Walters, Alvin Kallicharran, Mohammad Azharuddin, Greg Blewett, Sourav Ganguly, Rohit Sharma, James Neesham, and Abid Ali) went on to make centuries in the second Test as well. [5] Mohammad Azharuddin is the only player to score centuries in his first three Tests. [5] [6]
When he scored his debut hundred, Bangladesh's Mohammad Ashraful became the youngest player to score a century in Test cricket, at the age of 17 years and 61 days. [7] Adam Voges is the oldest player to have done so on debut, aged 35 years and 243 days when he scored 130 not out for Australia against the West Indies in June 2015. [8] The 100th century on Test debut was by South African Stiaan van Zyl, who scored 101* against the West Indies in Centurion in December 2014, whilst the 100th player to score a century on Test debut was his compatriot Stephen Cook, who scored 115 against England at the same ground in 2016.
David Hopps asked "Why is it that 100 Test batsmen, previously unchosen, have now trodden this path?" He notes, "There is often an advantage that bowlers have had no time to explore their deficiencies, but most influential of all must be the hunger that runs through their veins." [9]
Notation | Meaning |
---|---|
Batsman scored century in country's inaugural Test | |
* | The player remained not out. |
Inn. | The innings of the match in which the player scored his century. |
Test | The number of the Test match played in that series (for example, 1/3 denotes the first Test in a three match series). |
Date | The date on which the match began. |
Herath Mudiyanselage Rangana Keerthi Bandara Herath, known as Rangana Herath, is a former Sri Lankan cricketer, who played all forms of the game and a former Test captain for Sri Lanka. Herath is the most successful left arm bowler in Test cricket history. He is currently working as spin bowling consultant with the Bangladesh cricket team. Herath was a member of the Sri Lankan team that won the 2014 ICC World Twenty20.
Timothy Grant Southee, is a New Zealand international cricketer who plays for New Zealand cricket team in all formats of the game, captain in Tests and vice captain in T20Is. He is a right-arm fast-medium bowler and a hard-hitting lower order batsman. The third New Zealand bowler to take 300 Test wickets, he was one of the country's youngest cricketers, debuting at the age of 19 in February 2008. On his Test debut against England he took 5 wickets and made 77 off 40 balls in the second innings. He plays for Northern Districts in the Plunket Shield, Ford Trophy and Super Smash as well as Northland in the Hawke Cup. He was named as New Zealand's captain for the first T20I against West Indies in place of Kane Williamson, who was rested for that game. The Blackcaps won that match by 47 runs. Southee was a member of the New Zealand team that won the 2019–2021 ICC World Test Championship.
{{cite book}}
: |work=
ignored (help)