Of debuts and returns

The Afghanistan side before the start of the Test against India in Bengaluru.

  25

The average age of Afghanistan’s Test-playing XI in Bengaluru. At 25.11 years, the team is the youngest ever side to appear in a country’s inaugural Test match. The previous record of 25.93 years was held by the Bangladesh side during its maiden Test against India in Dhaka in November 2000.

The youngest and oldest sides to appear in their country’s inaugural Test match

Average age	Team	Oldest player	Age	Youngest player	Age	Against	Venue	Year
25.11	Afghanistan	Mohammad Nabi	33 years, 99 days	Mujeeb Ur Rahman	17 years, 78 days	India	Bengaluru	2018
25.93	Bangladesh	Aminul Islam	32 years, 282 days	Bikash Ranjan Das	18 years, 119 days	India	Dhaka	2000
26.30	India	C.K. Nayudu	36 years, 238 days	Amar Singh	21 years, 204 days	England	Lord’s	1932
26.69	South Africa	William Milton	34 years, 99 days	Arthur Ochse	19 years, 1 day	England	Port Elizabeth	1889
27.31	New Zealand	Matt Henderson	34 years, 161 days	Alby Roberts	20 years, 143 days	England	Christchurch	1930
27.46	Pakistan	Amir Elahi	44 years, 45 days	Hanif Mohammad	17 years, 300 days	India	Delhi	1952
27.61	Australia	Ned Gregory/Nat Thomson	37 years, 290 days	Tom Garrett	18 years, 232 days	England	Melbourne	1877
28.03	Sri Lanka	Somachandra de Silva	39 years, 251 days	Arjuna Ranatunga	18 years, 78 days	England	Colombo PSS	1982
30.63	Zimbabwe	John Traicos	45 years, 154 days	Alistair Campbell	20 years, 25 days	India	Harare	1992
32.07	Ireland	Ed Joyce	39 years, 231 days	Tyrone Kane	23 years, 307 days	Pakistan	Malahide	2018
33.11	West Indies	George Challenor	39 years, 361 days	Clifford Roach	24 years, 102 days	England	Lord’s	1928
33.20	England	James Southerton	49 years, 119 days	George Ulyett	25 years, 145 days	Australia	Melbourne	1877

 

Note: For the record, the average age of the ICC World XI that played a Test match in Sydney in October 2005 against Australia was 30.06 years. Brian Lara was the oldest player at 36 years, 165 days, while captain Graeme Smith was the youngest in the side at 24 years, 255 days.

17

The age of Afghanistan’s Mujeeb Ur Rahman when he made his Test debut against India in Bengaluru. At 17 years, 78 days, he is became the joint 15th youngest to make his Test debut. However, he is the youngest ever to appear in a country’s maiden Test match. Previously, Pakistan’s Hanif Mohammad at 17 years, 300 days was the youngest during his country’s inaugural Test match in October 1952.

Teenagers who made their debut in their country’s maiden Test match

Age	Player	For	Against	Venue	Date	Result
17 years, 78 days	Mujeeb Ur Rahman	Afghanistan	India	Bengaluru	June 14, 2018	Lost
17 years, 300 days	Hanif Mohammad	Pakistan	India	Delhi	October 16, 1952	Lost
18 years, 78 days	Arjuna Ranatunga	Sri Lanka	England	Colombo PSS	February 17, 1982	Lost
18 years, 119 days	Bikash Ranjan Das	Bangladesh	India	Dhaka	November 10, 2000	Lost
18 years, 133 days	Wafadar Momand	Afghanistan	India	Bengaluru	June 14, 2018	Lost
18 years, 232 days	Tom Garrett	Australia	England	Melbourne	March 15, 1988	Won
19 years, 1 day	Arthur Ochse	South Africa	England	Port Elizabeth	March 12, 1889	Lost
19 years, 267 days	Rashid Khan	Afghanistan	India	Bengaluru	June 14, 2018	Lost

 

The number of first-class matches played by Mujeeb Ur Rahman before his Test debut in Bengaluru. He became the only sixth player since 1900 to make his first-class debut in a Test match. Prior to 1900, there had been 28 instances (21 South Africans, five Englishmen and two Australians) of players making their first-class debut in a Test match. But then, first-class and Test cricket was in its infancy stage at that time.

Players making their first-class debut in a Test match (since 1900)

Player	For	Against	Venue	Date	Result	Tests played
Graham Vivian	New Zealand	India	Kolkata	March 1965	Drawn	5
Ujesh Ranchod	Zimbabwe	India	Delhi	March 1993	Lost	1
Mashrafe Mortaza	Bangladesh	Zimbabwe	Dhaka	November 2001	Drawn	36
Yasir Ali	Pakistan	Bangladesh	Multan	September 2003	Won	1
Nazmul Hossain	Bangladesh	India	Chittagong	December 2004	Lost	2
Mujeeb Ur Rahman	Afghanistan	India	Bengaluru	June 2018	Lost	1

 

Note: Mujeeb Ur Rahman is still active.

87

The number of Test matches missed by Dinesh Karthik after he made a comeback to the Indian side against Afghanistan in Bengaluru. Only six other players have missed more matches than Karthik in Test cricket history. However, Karthik has now missed most Tests than any other Indian. Incidentally, he last appeared in a Test way back in January 2010 at Chittagong.

Most consecutive Tests missed by a player

Tests missed	Player	For	From	To	Last Test played
142	Gareth Batty	England	June 6, 2005	October 20, 2016	November 9, 2016
114	Martin Bicknell	England	August 10, 1993	August 21, 2003	September 4, 2003
109	Floyd Reifer	West Indies	January 19, 1999	July 9, 2009	July 17, 2009
104	Younis Ahmed	Pakistan	November 3, 1969	February 21, 1987	March 4, 1987
103	Derek Shackleton	England	November 8, 1951	June 20, 1963	August 7, 1963
96	Les Jackson	England	July 27, 1949	July 6, 1961	July 6, 1961
87	Dinesh Karthik	India	January 23, 2010	June 14, 2018	August 1, 2018
86	Pat Pocock	England	July 14, 1976	July 26, 1984	February 25, 1985
85	Wayne Larkins	England	September 2, 1981	February 24, 1990	January 13, 1991
85	Liam Plunkett	England	June 12, 2007	June 12, 2014	June 12, 2014

 

Note: Karthik and Plunkett are still active.

Most consecutive Tests missed by an Indian player

Tests missed	Player	From	To	Tests played	Last Test played
87	Dinesh Karthik	January 23, 2010	June 14, 2018	24	August 2018
83	Parthiv Patel	August 12, 2008	November 26, 2016	25	January 2018
56	Abhinav Mukund	August 2, 2011	March 4, 2017	7	July 2017
49	Piyush Chawla	April 14, 2008	December 12, 2012	3	December 2012
43	Parthiv Patel	October 30, 2004	August 7, 2008	25	January 2018
40	Arun Lal	January 9, 1983	February 10, 1987	16	May 1989

 

Note: Apart from Arun Lal, all players are still active.

171.4

The number of overs taken to achieve a result in the recent Bengaluru Test match between India and Afghanistan. It is now the shortest ever completed Test match on Indian soil. Previously, the India-Australia Test in Mumbai in November 2004 was the lowest, lasting 202.1 overs.

Shortest completed Test matches on Indian soil

Overs	Balls	Team 1 (Overs faced)	Team 2 (Overs faced)	Venue	Date	Result
171.4	1,028	India (104.5)	Afghanistan (27.5 + 38.4)	Bengaluru	June 2018	India won by an innings and 262 runs
202.1	1,213	India (41.3 + 68.2)	Australia (61.3 + 30.5)	Mumbai (Wankhede)	November 2004	India won by 13 runs
210.2	1,262	West Indies (55.2 + 47)	India (108)	Mumbai (Wankhede)	November 2013	India won by an innings and 126 runs
237.4	1,426	Sri Lanka (59.1 + 48.4)	India (129.5)	Nagpur	December 1986	India won by an innings and 106 runs
243.1	1,459	India (61.5 + 66.5)	England (95.1 + 19.2)	Kanpur	January 1952	England won by eight wickets

 

Note: Only one other Test match in Asia was shorter than the Bengaluru Test. At Sharjah in October 2002, only 148.5 overs were bowled in the neutral Test match between Pakistan and Australia.

Queries Corner Who are the other Indians who have come close to scoring a century before lunch on opening day of a Test match? – Kirti Suresh, Pune Two Indians have missed scoring a century before lunch on the opening day of a Test match. First to miss was Farokh Engineer (109), who was unbeaten on 94 at lunch on the opening day of the Madras Test match in January 1967 against the West Indies. Then, Virender Sehwag missed his century by one run during his 180, also against the West Indies, at Gros Islet in June 2006. Sehwag did it one more time, during his unbeaten 201 against Sri Lanka at Galle in July 2008. On this occasion, he missed it by nine runs. He was 91 not out at lunch on the opening day. Is Afghanistan’s defeat by an innings and 262 runs the biggest by a Test debutant nation? – Ashish Khakar, Vadodara Afghanistan’s defeat is by far the biggest by a Test debutant nation. Previously Pakistan, in its maiden Test match, had lost to India by an innings and 70 runs in Delhi in October 1952. How often have two Indian openers made centuries in same Test innings? – Ajay Kumar, Mumbai In the recent Bengaluru Test match, Shikhar Dhawan and Murali Vijay provided the ninth instance when two Indian openers have managed to make three-figure scores in the same Test match innings. Interestingly, it was the third such instance for Dhawan and Vijay. They also achieved this at Mohali in 2013 against Australia and at Fatullah in 2015 against Bangladesh. The other six Indian openers to do so are: Vijay Merchant–S. Mushtaq Ali, Vinoo Mankad–Pankaj Roy, Sunil Gavaskar–Kris Srikkanth, Virender Sehwag–Rahul Dravid, Dinesh Karthik–Wasim Jaffer and Gautam Gambhir–Virender Sehwag. Both Ireland and Afghanistan made their Test debuts within a month of each other this year. Is this the shortest time between two newcomers in Tests? – Srihari Rao, Visakhapatnam The shortest time between two sides is the one between Australia and England who played the inaugural Test match at Melbourne on March 15, 1877. Otherwise, the time of one year, six months, 18 days between the debuts of West Indies (June 23, 1928) and New Zealand (January10, 1930) was the shortest – until this month. Both Ireland and Afghanistan played their first Tests one month, two days apart. For the record, for the longest is between South Africa (1889) and the West Indies (1928) – took 39 years, three months, 11 days. Note: All figures are updated as on June 21, 2018.