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Best and Worst International Debut's

dips_december

Cricket Spectator
The best I can think of was that of Sourav Ganguly in his first test at Lords scoring 131 .The worst i have seen was of James Marshall ,getiing runout when the partner was his twin brother Hamish .
 

andyc

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Off the top of my head, Andrew Strauss (112 and 83), Michael Clarke (151), Stuart Clark (9/89) and Matthew Sinclair (214). And as DCYE said, in terms of bad debuts, Marvan Attapatu managed something like 1 run in his first 6 innings.
 
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marc71178

Eyes not spreadsheets
Gavin Hamilton.

A pair and no wickets, then just when he thought his career couldn't get any worse, he was transferred to Durham.
 

Craig

World Traveller
Perhaps he shouldn't have signed the piece of paper, unless the Counties do it Romainian football style.

I always thought Joseph McMaster had a pretty bad debut, never scored a run, wicket, in his on his Test debut, which turned out to be his only Test, and his only FC game.
 

Craig

World Traveller
Perhaps he shouldn't have signed the piece of paper, unless the Counties do it Romainian football style.

I always thought Joseph McMaster had a pretty bad debut, never scored a run, wicket, in his on his Test debut, which turned out to be his only Test, and his only FC game.
 

Burpey

Cricketer Of The Year
Bob Massie - 16/137. Still the Australian record for best match figures.

Mark Waugh with 138 on debut was also a good effort.
 

Goughy

Hall of Fame Member
marc71178 said:
Gavin Hamilton.

A pair and no wickets, then just when he thought his career couldn't get any worse, he was transferred to Durham.
Read the thread title and he came straight to my mind.

Poor guy, he was having a pretty good career until that point and then THUMP
 

BoyBrumby

Englishman
Bannerman way back in the first ever test had a pretty handy debut, set the record for the highest % of a team's total scored by one player which still stands today! Must be one of the longest standing records in any sport!

Dom Cork did pretty well on debut, IIRC. Took (from memory) 7/43 v The Windies.

As for shockers, Gavin Hamilton's is possibly the worst I can recall although Mike Smith's one & only test was a bit of a mare too.
 

NZTailender

I can't believe I ate the whole thing
Lou Vincent. A hundred and a 50. Good debut.


Bond had a bad debut, you could say. Took one wicket (Steve Waugh for a duck) for about 100 runs?
 

TT Boy

Hall of Fame Member
Worst- Can not really look no further than Gavin Hamilton, you almost felt sorry for the guy.

Jimmy Cook had a pretty miserable test career. In his defence he was well into his 40’s and a decade past his best. Though a test average of 17 was no real reflection of what my Dad says was one of the finest provincial cricketers he ever saw.
 
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Top_Cat

Request Your Custom Title Now!
Best; Too many, really but the best I've seen was probably KP's. Certainly it's not as if he got a ton or anything but I know that all I heard before that match was how much of a slogger he was, couldn't play straight, etc.. I saw his three hundreds in South Africa and thought he'd looked a little better than a slogger but still just a mighty hitter. Then, against one of the best fast bowlers the world has ever seen on what should be his home ground and with England totally on the defensive and in all sorts of trouble, there he was with his shots reigned-in and the straightest defensive blade you ever saw. If an experienced player had done it, it was a great rearguard but for a guy in his first Test, it was just great to watch.

I mean, what a day for him; the high of playing his first Test, the higher high of watching England bowl Australia out cheaply and then in the space of an hour, his team in serious peril and he the last specialist batsman out there. To get through all of that took serious 'nads I reckon so I'd put him at the top of those I've seen.

Worst; Of those I've seen, Wayne Phillips.

No, not THAT Wayne Phillips, this one;

http://content-aus.cricinfo.com/ci/content/player/7116.html

The match in question;

http://aus.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/1991-92/IND_IN_AUS/IND_AUS_T5_01-05FEB1992.html

He hit two boundaries in the first innings, both edged through slip and in the second dig, made the most painful 14 I've had the misfortune of turning my nose up to. Anyone remember Steve's Waugh's knock against England a couple of years ago? Yeah well Wayne looked LESS comfortable in his Test......

Still, a poor Test debut isn't necessarily an indicator. I mean, G Gooch bagged a pair in his but was one of England's best batsman by the end of his career. And this guy scored 18 and 1 in his yet did reasonably well afterwards....

http://content-aus.cricinfo.com/ci/content/player/4188.html
 

SJS

Hall of Fame Member
Autobahn said:
Gooch - I can't think of much stuff worse than bagging a pair on debut.
In test matches, as many as 14 players have bagged a pair in their debut match starting with GF Grace in 1888 and ending (so far) with Fernando of Sri Lanka in 2002. This is not including tail enders. All of them batted between 1-7 in the batting order.

Of these some had occasion to contribute something to the team's cause.

- Cedric Smith of England took 5 for 16 (his best bowling in a 5 test career) so he must have been pretty chuffed with his debut.
- Fernando (SRL) took three wickets
- Grace took 2 catches
- Saeed Anwar, Gooch, CG Rowe (NZLand) Ken Rutherford, took one catch each. -

- Kenneth James, the Kiwi keeper had a stumping
- Christopher Kugleijn and Dirk Viljoen of South Africa took a wicket each and the first named even took a catch besides
- Twentyman Jones, Atapattu and Percy Lewis (SAF) are three who did nothing else for the team in a positive way
- But Butterfield (NZL) is our star having a negative contribution of 24 runs that he gave away in his 24 overs :)

Interstingly, while Atapattu and Saeed Anwar got their pairs on the same day in 1990 (though playing in different games), Charles Rowe and Leonard Butterfield both got pairs for Newzealand on their debut in the same test in 1946 !

Rowe is also my favourite because his namesake from West Indies did the exact opposite by scoring a double century and a single century on debut in February 1972. against , interstingly, Newzealand in this game
 

SJS

Hall of Fame Member
Rowe's 214 on debut was not the highest ever in the first test innings by a batsman.

RE Foster scored the then highest test match score of 287 in his debut test in December 1903. This stood as a record till nearly 27 years when Andy Sandham scored the first ever triple century in April 1930. By the way, this was Sandham's last test match of 14 and his 325 and 50 in the test remain the best performance by any batsman in his farewell game. Unlikely to be broken, I daresay.
 

Top_Cat

Request Your Custom Title Now!
RE Foster scored the then highest test match score of 287 in his debut test in December 1903. This stood as a record till nearly 27 years when Andy Sandham scored the first ever triple century in April 1930. By the way, this was Sandham's last test match of 14 and his 325 and 50 in the test remain the best performance by any batsman in his farewell game. Unlikely to be broken, I daresay.
Gawd, I sure hope not! I mean, what do you have to do to be dropped (assuming he was) after a triple ton? Those are some harsh selectors........

I just get images in my mind of Lumberg from Office Space saying "Yeah Andy; what's happening. Yeah, We've been looking at the match report and 325 was good but it wasn't exactly 326 was it?"
 

SJS

Hall of Fame Member
Best bowing on debut in tests :

Everyone remembers Massie and Hirwani's 16 wkts on debut (8 in either innings for both) but the best bowling in ONE innings in the debut match was Albert Trott's 8 for 43 for Australia in England's second innings in Jan 1895.

The worst bowling on debut in a test
This a bit more difficult to find but watch this space :)
 

SJS

Hall of Fame Member
Top_Cat said:
Gawd, I sure hope not! I mean, what do you have to do to be dropped (assuming he was) after a triple ton? Those are some harsh selectors........

I just get images in my mind of Lumberg from Office Space saying "Yeah Andy; what's happening. Yeah, We've been looking at the match report and 325 was good but it wasn't exactly 326 was it?"
I think he retired since he was 'tired' :)

Sandham was 40 when he played this last test of his. BTW, he scored 152 and 51 in the first innings of the same series. These two were his only three figure scores in test matches. Talk of 'blooming late':happy:
 

SJS

Hall of Fame Member
West Indian George Gladstone (1930) and Englishman Kenneth Palmer (1965) both gave away 189 runs for a solitary wicket on debut !

At least they had the gratification of getting a wicket.

Scott of West Indies, Mupariwa of Zimbabwe, Cecil Cook of England and Michael Mason of NZLand conceded 140, 136, 127 and 105 runs respectively, on debut without getting a wicket. None of them took a catch. Cook with a 0 and 4 AND Mason with 0 and 3 were 'outstanding' with the bat too.

There may be others with more inglorious debuts than these two but this takes some beating :happy:
 

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