The bare bones of the 1882 Oval Test may be expressed as Test # 9, England v Australia. Australia had won by 7 runs. But, and there is a big ‘but’ in all this, making the bland statement above is akin to stating that Pandit Ravi Shankar was an itinerant strummer or that Michelangelo was a hewer of stone.
In 1880, The Oval hosted the first Test on English soil.
The first cricket match played at the Kennington Oval for which a scorecard survives to this day appears to have been played on July 17, 1845
England ended their tour of India by imploding spectacularly, losing eight wickets for eight runs as Yuzvendra Chahal and Jasprit Bumrah left them looking clueless.
The old firm of Alfred Shaw, James Lillywhite, and Arthur Shrewsbury decided to launch their fourth enterprise in Australia despite the knowledge that another English team, under the leadership of Lord Hawke, was about to visit Australia almost simultaneously.
The 1885-86 domestic season, therefore, assumed great importance for Australia, in the absence of any visiting team. It was a time for soul-searching, for regrouping, and for renewed efforts at raising the standard of their skills and strategies.
The legend below identified the ball as being that which had been used in the dramatic closing stages of the Test at The Oval in August 1882 that Australia had won by 7 runs, spawning the legend of The Ashes.
The tour party had been selected by the triumvirate of James Lillywhite Jr, Alfred Shaw, and Arthur Shrewsbury Sr, and comprised 11 professional cricketers with Shaw acting as the captain.
The first match of the new season was between South Australia (SA) and Tasmania at Adelaide Oval in November.
The first Indian Test team consisted of two Parsees, Sorabji Colah and Pheroze Palia.