On his debut Test series, the 30-year-old Yorkshire opener Herbert Sutcliffe scored 734 runs in five Tests at an average of 81.55 — at the time the highest Test debut series aggregate by any batsman in cricket history.
Sutcliffe had emerged in Yorkshire's championship-winning sides of the early 1920s. His Test debut at 30 was late but well-judged; the partnership with Hobbs that began at Melbourne in the second Test of the 1924-25 series carried English Test batting through the next decade.
Sutcliffe had been pushed by Yorkshire's selectors as a Test prospect since 1923. His selection for the 1924-25 Ashes — at the age of 30, opening with the 42-year-old Hobbs — was conservative but not bold. The series produced one of the greatest debut performances in Test cricket history.
Across five Tests Sutcliffe scored 64 and 4 (Sydney, lost), 176 and 127 (Melbourne, lost — partnership of 283 with Hobbs in the first innings), 33 and 59 (Adelaide, lost), 143 and 27 (Melbourne, won — England's only Test win on Australian soil between 1912 and 1928), and 22 and 0 (Sydney, lost). Total: 734 runs in nine innings at 81.55, with four hundreds.
The 734 was the highest Test series aggregate ever made by an Englishman in Australia, and the highest Test debut series aggregate by any cricketer to that point. Sutcliffe was named one of Wisden's Five Cricketers of the Year for 1925. He played 54 Tests in total between 1924 and 1935, scoring 4,555 runs at 60.73 — still the highest Test average by an English batsman.
First Test, Sydney: 64 and 4 — Australia win
Second Test, Melbourne: 176 and 127; Hobbs partnership of 283; Australia win
Third Test, Adelaide: 33 and 59 — Australia win
Fourth Test, Melbourne: 143 and 27 — England's only Test win
Series total: 734 runs at 81.55 with 4 hundreds
Dec 1924
Sutcliffe Test debut at Sydney
Jan 1925
Melbourne — 176 and 127; partnership of 283 with Hobbs
Feb 1925
Melbourne — 143 in England's only Test win
Mar 1925
Series ends 1-4; Sutcliffe 734 runs at 81.55
“Hobbs is the master and I am the apprentice. He told me what to do, and I did it.”
Sutcliffe was named Wisden Cricketer of the Year for 1925. He partnered Hobbs as England's opening pair through the 1926, 1928-29 and 1930 Ashes series. He played 54 Tests in total and finished with the highest Test average by any English batsman.
Sutcliffe's 734 runs in 1924-25 was the greatest debut Test series by any batsman in cricket history at that point and the foundation of an England career that would produce the highest career average by an English Test batsman.
Sutcliffe's 60.73 Test average is still the highest by any English Test batsman with at least 20 Tests. His 734 runs in 1924-25 was the highest Test debut-series aggregate until Don Bradman's 974 in 1930.
Yorkshire v Essex
1932-06-16
On 15-16 June 1932 Herbert Sutcliffe (313) and Percy Holmes (224*) put on 555 for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton, breaking the world first-class record for any wicket and adding a layer of folklore — including a scoreboard that read 554 for several minutes and a hastily reversed declaration — that has clung to the partnership ever since.
Australia v England
1933-02-14
With the fate of the Bodyline series in the balance and England 216 for 6 chasing 340, Eddie Paynter checked himself out of a Brisbane hospital where he was being treated for acute tonsillitis, taxied to the Gabba in pyjamas and a dressing gown, and batted for nearly four hours to score 83. England drew level on first innings, won the Test by six wickets and the series 4-1.
Australia
1934-09-25
Days after the 1934 Oval Test, Bradman fell seriously ill with appendicitis that progressed to peritonitis. With antibiotics not yet available, he was given little chance of survival; his wife Jessie left Adelaide on a sea voyage to England prepared for the worst. He recovered after weeks of intensive nursing in a London nursing home and returned to first-class cricket the following Australian summer.