All about players making two fifties on their Test debut

A total of 38 players have made two 50s on Test debut, Kusal Perera being the latest. Bharath Seervi does a statistical roundup of all players who had such a start to their Test career.

It is nothing to with a player performing brilliantly in his maiden Test and going on to become a great player and vice versa. But it is always a good to begin something with big. For debutant batsmen, a century in any innings or good decent scores in both innings should be enough to validate the decision of the selection committee. With an increase in the number of players in domestic cricket striving to play for their international sides, it has become almost mandatory to make a mark when playing for the first time. This was the not the same case in earlier days of cricket. READ: Best batsmen when following-on in Tests

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There are 38 batsmen who made fifties in each on Test debut, the latest being Kusal Perera against India at SSC in the Test that started on August 28, 2015. He scored 55 and 70. READ: Lowest ‘highest’ opening partnership in a Test series

The first of these 38 was KS Ranjitsinhji who scored 62 and 154* against Australia at Old Trafford in 1896. Out of the 38, 13 batsmen men have debut since 2000.

Only two batsmen have scored centuries in both innings in their debut Test — Lawrence Rowe (214 and 100*) for West Indies in 1971-72 and Yasir Hameed (170 and 105) for Pakistan in 2003.

Centuries in both innings on Test debut

Century in the first innings and fifty in the second on Test debut

Fifty in the first innings and century in the second on Test debut

Fifties (but not hundreds) in each innings on Test debut

Notes:

–          Hameed did not score any other century in his career’s next 24 Tests. He scored 8 fifties from 47 innings.

–          Rowe scored five more centuries including a triple century in the next 29 Tests of his career.

–          Ranji was the first to score a 150 in his team’s second innings on Test debut. Only two more batsmen have emulated him — George Headley (176) against England at Kensington Oval in 1929-30 and Fawad Alam (168) against Sri Lanka at Colombo (P Sara) in 2009.

–          Paul Gibb and Gordon Greenidge are the only players to get out in 90s in one innings and score a hundred in the other innings on debut.

–          Azhar Mahmood (128* and 50*) and Jackie Grant (53* and 71*) are the only batsmen to make two unbeaten fifties on debut.

–          Clive Lloyd (82 and 78*) and Bruce Laird (92 and 75) are the only batsmen to make two 75s on debut without making a hundred.

–          Jackie Grant was captaining on debut.

–          Dilawar Hussain, Dinesh Chandimal and Kusal were keeping wickets.

–          Sew Shivnarine (53 and 63), Azhar (128* and 50*), Chandimal (58 and 54), Moises Henriques (68 and 81*) and Kusal (55 and 70) are the only players to make fifties in both innings on Test debut batting at No. 7 or lower. All scored those runs at No. 7.

–          A total of 11 of these have come in losing causes: Ranji was the first and Kusal, the last.

Highest individual scores on debut batting only in one innings

Three batsmen have scored double centuries on their Test debut batting in only one innings: Brendon Kuruppu (201*) against New Zealand at Colombo CCC in 1986-87, Matthew Sinclair (214) against West Indies at Wellington in 1999-00 and Jacques Rudolph (222*) against Bangladesh at Chittagong in 2002-03.

Two others scored double-centuries on Test debut but they had batted in the other innings as well. Rowe who scored 214 and followed it with 100 not out, while Tip Foster followed his 287 with 19 against Australia at SCG in 1902-03.

(Bharath Seervi is a cricket statistician who is obsessed with digging numbers, facts and records related to the game. An active member of Society of Cricket Statisticians of India, he blogs at www.cricketseervistats.blogspot.com. He can be followed on Twitter at @SeerviBharath and on Facebook here)