Stats: AB de Villiers' streak of 98 consecutive Test matches since debut comes to an end

AB De Villiers has opted out of South Africa’s ongoing tour of Bangladesh

The South African run machine of the present generation, AB de Villiers, had the best opportunity to become the first ever cricketer to play all his team’s 100 Test matches consecutively since making his debut. But he missed on this by just two matches.

He had previously played in all the 98 Test matches South Africa played since making his debut on December 17, 2014.

AB de Villiers opted out from the ongoing Bangladesh tour and unfortunately this ended his streak. Playing 100 Test matches is a major milestone for any player, but playing all 100 matches without missing any in between is a bigger feat that that.

Anyway, AB de Villiers does hold the record of most consecutive Test matches since debut. He overcame Adam Gilchrist who played 96 Test matches – someone who did not miss any Test in his whole career from November 5, 1999 to January 24, 2008.

Most consecutive Tests without missing any since debut (50 or more matches)

Mat	Player	Team	Debut	Till	Last Test	Total
98	AB de Villiers	South Africa	17-Dec-04	02-Jan-15	-	98
96	Adam Gilchrist+	Australia	05-Nov-99	24-Jan-08	24-Jan-08	96
94	Rahul Dravid	India/World XI	20-Jun-96	10-Dec-05	24-Jan-12	164
94*	Brendon McCullum+	New Zealand	10-Mar-04	29-May-15	-	94*
84	Sachin Tendulkar	India	15-Nov-89	15-Jun-01	14-Nov-13	200
79	Mike Hussey+	Australia	03-Nov-05	03-Jan-13	03-Jan-13	79
65	Kapil Dev	India	16-Oct-78	28-Nov-84	19-Mar-94	131
64	Ian Healy	Australia	15-Sep-88	05-Oct-94	14-Oct-99	119
61	Rohan Kanhai	West Indies	30-May-57	14-Feb-69	30-Mar-74	79
58	John Reid+	New Zealand	23-Jul-49	08-Jul-65	08-Jul-65	58
58	Tony Greig+	England	08-Jun-72	25-Aug-77	25-Aug-77	58
56	Alistair Campbell	Zimbabwe	18-Oct-92	14-Sep-01	16-Nov-02	60
54	Kevin Pietersen	England	21-Jul-05	16-Jul-09	03-Jan-14	104
53	Gary Kirsten	South Africa	26-Dec-93	18-Mar-99	26-Mar-04	101
52	Frank Woolley	England	09-Aug-09	14-Aug-26	18-Aug-34	64
52	Rod Marsh	Australia	27-Nov-70	25-Aug-77	02-Jan-84	96
52	Andy Flower	Zimbabwe	18-Oct-92	15-Jun-01	16-Nov-02	63
51	Greg Chappell	Australia	11-Dec-70	25-Aug-77	02-Jan-84	87

Players with a ‘+’ behind their name did not miss any Test match in their career. Adam Gilchrist (96) Brendon McCullum (94*), Mike Hussey (79), John Reid (58) and Tony Greig (58) are those players.

Brendon McCullum’s streak is on and he has the chance to become the first player to appear in his team’s consecutive 100 test matches since debut.

Rahul Dravid’s 94 Tests included 93 for India and 1 for World XI.

Kapil Dev played his first 65 Test matches, missed one, and then played all the next 66 Test matches. In a career of 131 Test matches, he missed only one.

Like Kapil Dev, Ian Healy played 64 Tests from debut, missed one, and then played all his next 55. He also missed only the one Test.

Rahul Dravid missed only Two test matches and Andy Flower missed three. These are the only players along with Kapil Dev and Ian Healy to miss less than five matches among the names in the table.

Apart from playing consecutive Test matches since debut, four players have played over 100 matches consecutively at any point of their career. AB de Villiers finds his place in the fifth position in the table below of most consecutive test matches.

Most consecutive Test matches for a team

Batsman	Team	Matches	Start	End
Allan Border	Australia	153	10-Mar-79	25-Mar-94
Alastair Cook	England	115*	11-May-06	-
Mark Waugh	Australia	107	03-Jun-93	19-Oct-02
Sunil Gavaskar	India	106	23-Jan-75	03-Feb-87
AB de Villiers	South Africa	98	17-Dec-04	02-Jan-15
Adam Gilchrist	Australia	96	05-Nov-99	24-Jan-08
Brendon McCullum	New Zealand	94*	10-Mar-04	-
Rahul Dravid	India	93	20-Jun-96	10-Dec-05
Mahela Jayawardene	Sri Lanka	93	08-Nov-02	03-Jan-13
Gundappa Viswanath	India	87	19-Mar-71	30-Jan-83
Matthew Hayden	Australia	86	31-Mar-00	02-Jan-08
Garry Sobers	West Indies	85	11-Apr-55	20-Apr-72
Sachin Tendulkar	India	84	15-Nov-89	15-Jun-01
Mike Hussey	Australia	79	03-Nov-05	03-Jan-13
Mark Boucher	South Africa	75	14-Feb-98	11-Aug-04

Allan Border missed three matches, missed one and then played all the next 153 matches. He also missed only one Test in his career of 156 matches.

Alastair Cook also missed only one Test in his career. He played the first two, then missed one, and played in all the next 115. Cook's streak, therefore, is still on.

Most consecutive Tests for South Africa

Player	Matches	From	Till
AB de Villiers	98	17-Dec-04	02-Jan-15
Mark Boucher	75	14-Feb-98	11-Aug-04
Hashim Amla	68	27-Apr-06	14-Oct-13
Jacques Kallis	60	26-Dec-97	02-Jan-03
Mark Boucher	54	13-Jan-05	06-Feb-10
Gary Kirsten	53	26-Dec-93	18-Mar-99

AB de Villiers and Gary Kirsten are the only South Africans to play over 50 consecutive matches from their debut.

Mark Boucher has two different sequences of 50+ consecutive Test matches in his career but not from his debut. Kapil Dev and Ian Healy are the only others with two sequences of 50+ consecutive Test matches in career.

Most consecutive Tests for all teams (50+ consecutive Tests)

Team	Player	Matches	From	Till
Australia	Allan Border	153	10-Mar-79	25-Mar-94
England	Alastair Cook	115*	11-May-06	-
India	Sunil Gavaskar	106	23-Jan-75	03-Feb-87
New Zealand	Brendon McCullum	94*	10-Mar-04	-
Pakistan	Javed Miandad	53	14-Dec-77	02-Jan-84
South Africa	AB de Villiers	98	17-Dec-04	02-Jan-15
Sri Lanka	Mahela Jayawardene	93	08-Nov-02	03-Jan-13
West Indies	Garry Sobers	85	11-Apr-55	20-Apr-72
Zimbabwe	Alistair Campbell	56	18-Oct-92	14 Sep 200

No player has played 50+ consecutive tests for Bangladesh.

Javed Miandad is the only player to play 50+ consecutive tests for Pakistan.

For Australia 16 players have played 50+ consecutive matches, 11 for England, 10 for India, 4 for New Zealand, 5 for South Africa, 2 for Sri Lanka, 5 for West Indies and 2 for Zimbabwe.