Top 10 forgettable debuts in Test cricket

Personally, not a great start for Dean Elgar.

South Africa will be one happy team. They have not just successfully defended their No.1 position in the Test rankings, but have also won their 2^nd consecutive series on Australian soil; a feat previously achieved only by the great West Indies team in 1992-93 and England. Everyone had contributed equally to this sweet victory, except for one gentleman, who incidentally happened to be on his debut.

Dean Elgar, South Africa’s 305^th Test Player, bagged a pair. Definitely not the debut he would have hoped for. He might go on to win a few more caps for South Africa, but this will remain a blot on his resume.

There have been quite a few other players who have had disastrous debuts. Some of them went on to have pretty decent careers while others disappeared into oblivion. So, here is looking at few other debuts which had gone horribly wrong for the players and how they fared after that.

1. Marvan Atapattu:

A former Sri Lankan Captain with a glorious cover drive, he didn’t just have a shocker of a debut, but the horrendous start to his career stretched beyond one match. He bagged a pair on his debut against India, and followed it up with 3 more ducks in his next 4 innings. He went on to have a pretty successful career for Sri Lanka and in fact, racked up 6 double hundreds in Tests. Only Lara, Bradman, Hammond and Sangakkara have more.

2. Saeed Anwar:

One of Pakistan’s best Test openers, Anwar bagged a pair in his Test debut against West Indies. He did not let the disappointment get to him, and was Pakistan’s premier batsman in the 90’s. He had a good record of scoring runs in overseas conditions. With 11 Test centuries under his belt, Anwar is also the 8^th highest run scorer for Pakistan in Test Cricket.

3. Graham Gooch:

England’s leading run scorer in Test Cricket had a dismal start to his career. Making his debut in the Ashes series of 1975, Gooch bagged a pair as Australia romped home by an innings. He played one more match, before being dropped from the team. He made his grand comeback in 1978 and was one of the leading batsmen of his time.

4. Don Bradman:

It is quite strange to imagine that a batsman with an average of 99.94 would have even a single bad test match. But yes, Sir Donald Bradman had a rather pedestrian debut. He made just 18 and 1 in his first game against the touring English team, and was dropped for the next match. The rest as they say, is history.

5. Gavin Hamilton:

Hamilton, a Scottish by descent, was in contention for selection in national teams of both Scotland and England, for the 1999 World Cup. He eventually played for Scotland and had a decent outing. Impressed by his performances, the English selectors picked him for England’s tour of South Africa in 1999-00. He was selected for the 1^st match and had a shocker of a debut. He bagged a pair and went wicketless as England slumped to an innings defeat. He was unceremoniously dropped from the team and has never played for England again.

6. Shahadat Hossain:

One of the better fast bowlers that Bangladesh has produced, Shahadat had a forgettable debut against England. He bowled just 12 overs and was clobbered for 101 runs. England went on to win the match by an innings, sparing him the 2^nd innings blushes. He has had a reasonably good career with 67 wickets from 31 matches since then. However, marred by injuries, he has fallen out of the Bangladesh Cricket Board’s favour.

7. Shane Warne:

Yes, the greatest leg-spinner in the history of Test Cricket had a horrendous start to his career. His debut came in 1991-92 against India. Indian batsmen relished the sight of a spinner, and Warne was smashed to all parts of the ground. His figures were 45-7-150-1 at the end of the Indian innings. Hardly could have anyone imagined at that point of time that “the blonde who got bludgeoned”, will turn out to be one of Wisden’s Five Cricketers of the 20^th Century.

8. Vinay Kumar:

Making his Test debut against Australia in Perth after replacing Ashwin, Vinay Kumar was under huge pressure to perform in the must win game for India. But he was quite unlucky to come across David Warner in full flow. Vinay Kumar was clobbered all over the park as Warner destroyed all in his way to 180 off 159 balls. Vinay did pick up a wicket, that of Mike Hussey and finished with figures of 13-0-73-1, his only consolation being similar performances of his fellow pacers. He has not won another Test cap since then.

9. Nilesh Kulkarni:

Not much success was enjoyed by Nilesh (seen celebrating here with the keeper) in the international arena.

Kulkarni made his debut in 1997-98 against Sri Lanka. He picked up Atapattu’s wicket with the first ball he bowled. He then went on to bowl 69.5 more overs without getting another, as Sri Lanka amassed 952-6, the highest score in Test match history. He went on to play 2 more Test matches for India after a gap of 4 years and picked up just one more wicket. He was not picked to play for India again. He finished with a bowling average of 166 and strike rate of 369.

10. Bryce McGain:

Post Warne’s retirement in 2007, Australia was hunting for its next big spinner. Bryce McGain was one of the many trial bowlers. Making a debut at the age of 36 against South Africa in 2008, Bryce was taken to the cleaners. Ashwell Prince and Jacques Kallis ensured he never got into his rhythm. His bowling figures were a rather untidy 0/149 from 18 overs. Age not being on his side, Bryce McGain never got a chance to improve his test figures.