Steven Smith: First player to score centuries on both Test and ODI captaincy debuts

Steven Smith scored century on Test and ODI debut.

Steven Smith became the first player in the history of international cricket to score centuries in captaincy debut in both the formats and eighth to do in ODIs, Bharath Seervi lists the others.

Steven Smith scored 133 in his first Test as captain against India at The Gabba in December 2014 and an unbeaten 102 in his first One-Day International (ODI) as captain against England at Hobart in January 2015. He became the first player to score 100s on both Test and ODI captaincy debuts.

In ODIs, before Steven Smith, seven others scored a century in their first innings as captain. Glenn Turner was the first to do so. He scored an unbeaten 171 when he captained for the first time in the World Cup 1975. It was the highest individual ODI score until Kapil Dev scored 175 not out in World Cup 1983 and it remained the highest individual score by a captain in ODIs until Viv Richards smashed 181 in 1987.

Others to have scored centuries on captaincy debut in ODIs are Richie Richardson, Sachin Tendulkar, Sanath Jayasuriya, Irving Romaine, Mike Hussey and Gavin Hamilton. The table below has the other details. Romaine and Hussey did not bat in their first match as captain, but scored hundreds in their debut innings.

Century on ODI captaincy debut

Batsman	Runs	Team	Against	Venue	Date
Glenn Turner	171*	New Zealand	East Africa	Edgbaston	07-Jun-75
Richie Richardson	106*	West Indies	Pakistan	Sharjah	17-Oct-91
Sachin Tendulkar	110	India	Sri Lanka	Premadasa	28-Aug-96
Sanath Jayasuriya	102	Sri Lanka	Zimbabwe	SSC	26-Jan-98
Irving Romaine	101	Bermuda	Canada	Toronto	21-Aug-06
Mike Hussey	109*	Australia	West Indies	Kuala Lumpur	18-Sep-06
Gavin Hamilton	119	Scotland	Canada	Aberdeen	07-Jul-09
Steven Smith	102*	Australia	England	Hobart	23-Jan-15

 

Steven Smith, who had scored a century on his Test captaincy debut as well, became the first player to achieve this double, though four others have scored hundreds on Test captaincy debut and fifties on ODI captaincy debut.

Century on Test captaincy debut and fifty on ODI captaincy debut

Batsman	Team	Test debut	ODI debut
Steven Smith	Australia	133	102*
Greg Chappell	Australia	123 & 109*	59
Alastair Cook	England	173& 39	64
Clive Lloyd	West Indies	30 &163	53
Andrew Strauss	England	30 &128	74*

 

Fifties on ODI captaincy debut innings for all teams

Afghanistan

Batsman	Runs	Against	Venue	Date
Mohammad Nabi	51	Scotland	Sharjah	08-Mar-13

 

Mohammad Nabi scored 51 in his second ODI as captain. He did not bat in his ODI captaincy debut.

Australia

Batsman	Runs	Against	Venue	Date
Ian Chappell	53	England	Manchester	24-Aug-72
Greg Chappell	59	West Indies	Adelaide	20-Dec-75
Allan Border	73	West Indies	Melbourne	06-Jan-85
Steve Waugh	91	South Africa	Bloemfontein	13-Apr-97
Adam Gilchrist	98	West Indies	Brisbane	14-Jan-01
Mike Hussey	109*	West Indies	Kuala Lumpur	18-Sep-06
George Bailey	89	Sri Lanka	Melbourne	11-Jan-13
Steven Smith	102*	England	Hobart	23-Jan-15

 

–          Allan Border scored an unbeaten 79 in his second ODI as captain after having scored 73 in his first ODI as captain.

–          Hussey scored 42 in his second ODI innings as captain, 105 in his third and 13 in his fourth and final ODI as captain in 2007. He never captained since then. He scored only one century in his other 153 ODI innings as non-captain and averaged 89.66 with bat as Aussie captain in ODIs.

–          Ian Chappell also scored 62 in his last ODI as captain.

–          Adam Gilchrist scored a duck in his last ODI as captain.

Bangladesh

Batsman	Runs	Against	Venue	Date
Aminul Islam	70	India	Mohali	14-May-98
Habibul Bashar	61	Zimbabwe	Harare	10-Mar-04
Shakib Al Hasan	54	West Indies	Roseau	26-Jul-09

 

–          Aminul Islam bagged a duck in his final ODI as captain.

–          Shakib Al Hasan scored another half-century (65) in his next ODI as captain two days later.

 

Bermuda

Batsman	Runs	Against	Venue	Date
Irving Romaine	101	Canada	Toronto	21-Aug-06

 

–          The century by Romaine is his solitary century in ODIs. It was also the first ODI century for Bermuda. So far, only two ODI centuries have been scored for Bermuda.

England

Batsman	Runs	Against	Venue	Date
Mike Denness	66	West Indies	Headingley	05-Sep-73
Allan Lamb	55*	West Indies	Kensington Oval	03-Apr-90
Michael Atherton	86	West Indies	Kensington Oval	16-Feb-94
Graham Thorpe	62*	Sri Lanka	Dambulla	23-Mar-01
Marcus Trescothick	52	Zimbabwe	Bulawayo	10-Oct-01
Andrew Strauss	74*	India	Jamshedpur	12-Apr-06
Michael Vaughan	79	West Indies	Kensington Oval	21-Apr-07
Alastair Cook	64	Bangladesh	Dhaka	28-Feb-10
Eoin Morgan	59	Ireland	Dublin	25-Aug-11

 

–          Marcus Trescothick scored unbeaten 114 in his second ODI as captain but did not get reach 50 again in his next eight ODIs as captain.

–          Alastair Cook scored 60 in his next ODI as captain. He scored two centuries in his first two Tests as captain and two half-centuries in his first two ODIs as captain — all against Bangladesh.

–          Eoin Morgan scored unbeaten 124 in his next ODI as captain.

–          Graham Thorpe got a duck in his final ODI as captain.

India

Batsman	Runs	Against	Venue	Date
Ajit Wadekar	67	England	Headingley	13-Jul-74
Ravi Shastri	50	Pakistan	Indore	27-Jan-87
Sachin Tendulkar	110	Sri Lanka	Premadasa	28-Aug-96
Ajay Jadeja	50	Kenya	Chinnaswamy	20-May-98
MS Dhoni	58	Australia	Kochi	02-Oct-07

 

–          Ajit Wadekar’s 67 came in India’s first ever ODI. Wadekar captained in only one more ODI.

–          Ravi Shastri scored 109 runs in his last ODI as captain. He is one of four men (along with Bev Congdon, Kevin Pietersen and Jacques Kallis) to score hundreds in their last ODIs as captain.

–          MS Dhoni scored 58 in his second ODI as captain (he did not bat in his first ODI). The same match was also Adam Gilchrist’s last as captain; he scored a duck.

New Zealand

Batsman	Runs	Against	Venue	Date
Glenn Turner	171*	East Africa	Edgbaston	07-Jun-75
Brendon McCullum	71	India	Christchurch	08-Mar-09
Ross Taylor	70	Australia	Napier	03-Mar-10

 

–          Glenn Turner also scored a half-century in his last ODI as captain. He averaged 128.75 in the seven ODIs he led.

–          Ross Taylor scored 95 in his second ODI as captain.

Pakistan

Batsman	Runs	Against	Venue	Date
Asif Iqbal	53	Australia	Headingley	07-Jun-75
Majid Khan	60	West Indies	Edgbaston	11-Jun-75
Aamer Sohail	55	India	Chinnaswamy	09-Mar-96
Misbah-ul-Haq	70*	India	Karachi	02-Jul-08

 

–          Asif Iqbal captained in six ODIs. He batted in five of them and scored 53, 59 not out, 61, 51 and 17.

–          Majid Khan scored 84 in last ODI as captain.

Scotland

Batsman	Runs	Against	Venue	Date
Ryan Watson	80	Pakistan	Edinburgh	27-Jun-06
Gavin Hamilton	119	Canada	Aberdeen	07-Jul-09

 

–          Gavin Hamilton’s 119 was the first century by a Scotland captain.

South Africa

Batsman	Runs	Against	Venue	Date
Kepler Wessels	81*	Australia	SCG	26-Feb-92
AB de Villiers	52	Sri Lanka	Paarl	11-Jan-12

 

–          Kepler Wessels scored 51 runs in his last ODI as captain.

Sri Lanka

Batsman	Runs	Against	Venue	Date
Sanath Jayasuriya	102	Zimbabwe	SSC	26-Jan-98
Marvan Atapattu	53*	England	SSC	27-Mar-01
Tillakaratne Dilshan	61	India	Bulawayo	30-May-10

 

–          Tillakaratne Dilshan’s scores in his first five ODIs were 61, 60 not out, 21, 78 and 104 not out. He did not get to double digits in his next six ODIs as captain.

West Indies

Batsman	Runs	Against	Venue	Date
Rohan Kanhai	55	England	Headingley	05-Sep-73
Clive Lloyd	53	Pakistan	Edgbaston	11-Jun-75
Deryck Murray	51	Australia	St John’s	22-Feb-78
Richie Richardson	106*	Pakistan	Sharjah	17-Oct-91

 

–          Rohan Kanhai’s fifty came in West Indies’ first ODI. It was also the only time Kanhai batted as captain. He led in another ODI but did not bat.

–          It was Clive Lloyd’s second ODI as captain; he did not bat on captaincy debut.

–          It was the only time Deryck Murray batted in the two ODIs he led.

Zimbabwe

Batsman	Runs	Against	Venue	Date
Duncan Fletcher	69*	Australia	Trent Bridge	09-Jun-83
Guy Whittall	58*	India	Bulawayo	27-Jun-01
Tatenda Taibu	96*	Sri Lanka	Bulawayo	20-Apr-04
Terry Duffin	53	Kenya	Bulawayo	25-Feb-06

 

–          Duncan Fletcher scored an unbeaten 69 to help Zimbabwe beat Australia in their first ever ODI.

–          Tatenda Taibu also scored 71 in his last ODI as captain.

(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 www.twitter.com/SeerviBharath and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SeerviCricket)

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