Hyderabad: Playing for the nation is a dream for every cricketer. When the time arrives cricketers try to make it a memorable moment of their life. The general perception is that settling down in international cricket takes time. So when the time for debut in Test cricket comes every cricketer looks for a good start. But the transition from domestic cricket to international cricket is not always easy. It took years for many legends of the game to settle down. But there a few players who took the world by surprise in their very first Test match. For them, it was a dream debut.
We pick up top 5 debutantes in Test cricket history.
Foster's dream debut
England's Reginald Erskine Foster, aka Tip Foster, didn't waste the first opportunity he got to play for the country after being selected for the first Ashes Test in 1903. The match was being played at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Due to personal reason, Foster couldn't make it to the national side earlier. But when he had debuted he made it a remarkable moment of his career.
Foster scored 287 which was more than Australia's first innings score after coming to bat No. 5. He had hit 37 boundaries.
However, he could play only 8 Tests for England as chronic disease forced him to take early retirement. In 1914, he died of diabetes at the age of 36.
When Bob Massie massacred England
Bob Massie could not have asked for a better debut in his extremely short Test career. Though he played only six Test for Australia, his debut was excellent. In 1972 Ashes series in England, he picked up 16 wickets at the Lord's.
Massie picked up 8 for 84 in the first innings and 8 for 53 in the second. His exceptional performance powered Australia to an eight-wicket win the match. His match tally 16 for 137 is the second-best bowling figure by a debutante in Test cricket history.
Lawrence Rowe put Kiwis to the willow
During 1972 home series against New Zealand, the expectation was high on West Indies batsman Lawrence Rowe. He made his debut at the home ground- Sabaina Park and played a clinical 214 runs innings in the first innings of Kingston Test.
Rowe followed his first-innings double ton with a 100 not out in the second innings. This made him the first male cricketer to score a double hundred and a century on his Test debut.
However, his magnificent performance couldn't win West Indies the match as New Zealand fought for a draw.
Later asked about his debut Test, Rowe said, "This is my home ground, and I have no right to get out here."
He played 30 Tests for West Indies.
Narendra Hirwani bamboozled West Indies
West Indies were touring India in 1987-88. They had won the first Test by 5 wickets. The second and third Test was drawn. In the fourth Test in Chennai, 19-year-old Narendra Hirwani took the tourists by surprise. The bespectacled leg spinner scalped 16 wickets in that match. His 8 for 61 bowled West Indies out for 184 in the first innings while in the second innings he took as many wickets conceding 75 runs.
India won the match by 255 runs and levelled the series 1-1. Viv Richards, Richie Richardson, Carl Hooper and Desmond Hynes are some of the notable names who were dismissed by Hirwani in the match.
But his mind-boggling tally of 16 for 136 in debut Test never translated into a legendary career as he went on to play only 17 Test for India. Hirwani's Chennai Test tally is the best bowling figure in a Test by a debutante.
Rudolph raided Bangladesh
17 years ago, on April 26, South Africa's Jacques Rudolph announced his arrival in Test cricket.
The 21-year-old left-handed batsman left the cricketing world stunned batting for more than eight and a half hours in sweltering weather in Chittagong to score 222 on his debut Test against Bangladesh at the M. A. Aziz Stadium in 2003. He shared a 429-run partnership with Boeta Dippenaar (177) which is the highest partnership by any South African pair for any wicket. Rudolph hit 29 boundaries and 2 sixes.
Batting first Bangladesh were bowled out for 173. South Africa in reply got off to a poor start as they lost Graeme Smith and Herschelle Gibbs early. But Rudolph and Dippenaar's partnership changed the hue of the match as South Africa won the match by an innings and 60 runs.
However, Rudolph could only play 48 Tests for South Africa. He scored 2622 runs at an average of 35.43.
