England vs India
1996-06-22
On June 22, 1996, Sourav Ganguly (131) became only the third batter to score a Test hundred on debut at Lord's, while Rahul Dravid fell five short of a debut century with 95. The pair added 94 for the fifth wicket — the first chapter in a partnership that would underpin Indian cricket for the next 15 years.
Australia vs New Zealand
1993-11-12
Glenn McGrath made his Test debut for Australia at Perth on November 12, 1993, replacing the injured Merv Hughes. He took 3 for 142 in the match — modest figures, but the start of a 124-Test, 563-wicket career that would form the spine of Australian cricket for the next 14 years.
West Indies vs South Africa
1992-04-18
On April 18-23, 1992, South Africa played their first Test match in 22 years — against the West Indies in Bridgetown. They lost by 52 runs after collapsing from 122/2 to 148 all out chasing 201. Curtly Ambrose took 6/34 in the second innings; Barbadian fans largely boycotted the game in protest at Anderson Cummins' omission.
India, Pakistan
1989-11-15
Aged 16 years and 205 days, Sachin Tendulkar walked out at Karachi to face Wasim Akram, Imran Khan, Waqar Younis and Abdul Qadir on Test debut — the youngest Indian Test cricketer and the start of a 24-year career.
West Indies, England
1986-02-21
Replacing the rested Michael Holding at Sabina Park in February 1986, Patrick Patterson took 4 for 30 and 3 for 44 on his Test debut on what Graham Gooch later called 'the only pitch I have ever feared for my life on'.
New Zealand, Pakistan
1985-01-25
An 18-year-old Wasim Akram, plucked from the BCCP nets by Javed Miandad, took 10 for 128 in his second Test against New Zealand at Auckland — the start of one of the great fast-bowling careers.
England, Sri Lanka
1984-08-23
Eighteen-year-old Aravinda de Silva made his Test debut for Sri Lanka at Lord's in August 1984 in a one-off Test that, despite Sri Lanka's defensive draw, signalled the arrival of a generational talent.
Sri Lanka, England
1982-02-17
Sri Lanka played their inaugural Test match at the P. Saravanamuttu Stadium in Colombo, on 17 February 1982 — captain Bandula Warnapura's side fell to England by 7 wickets, but the match marked Sri Lanka's arrival as the eighth Test nation.
Sri Lanka, England
1982-02-17
Eighteen-year-old Arjuna Ranatunga walked out at Colombo to bat in Sri Lanka's first ever Test innings, scored a debut fifty, and started the career that would end with the 1996 World Cup.
England vs Australia
22-26 June 1972
Western Australian seam bowler Bob Massie took 16 wickets for 137 runs on Test debut at Lord's in June 1972 — 8/84 in the first innings and 8/53 in the second — bowling Australia to an eight-wicket win in the second Ashes Test. The figures are the second-best match haul in Test history (Jim Laker's 19/90 remains the standard) and remain unsurpassed for a debutant.
Australia vs England
11-16 December 1970
Greg Chappell scored 108 on Test debut at the WACA in December 1970, in the first Test ever played at the Perth ground, becoming the sixth Australian to make a hundred in his first Test innings. Coming in at 5/107 against John Snow and Peter Lever, he added 219 with Ian Redpath for the sixth wicket and converted what had been an under-pressure innings into a position of safety on a debut day later judged the foundation of his Test career.
Australia vs England
1965-12-10
Doug Walters made 155 on his Test debut against England at the Gabba on 10 December 1965 — the tenth Australian to score a debut century against the old enemy. He followed it with 115 in his second Test at Melbourne and another in the third at Sydney, becoming the first batsman in history to score centuries in his first three Ashes innings. He was 19 years old.
Australia v New Zealand
1946-03-29
Ray Lindwall — recently demobilised from the Australian Army's New Guinea campaign — took the new ball in his Test debut at the Basin Reserve, Wellington, on 29 March 1946. He took 1/13 and 1/16 in a match completed in two days as New Zealand were dismissed for 42 and 54. Decades later the ICC retrospectively granted the fixture full Test status (March 1948 ratification), confirming Lindwall's first cap in the same match in which Bill O'Reilly bowled the last over of his Test career.
India v England
1933-12-17
On 17 December 1933 Lala Amarnath, batting at No. 5 on his Test debut, scored 118 to become the first Indian to make a Test century. The innings, made out of 219 added with C.K. Nayudu, came against an MCC attack of Nichols, Clark and Verity and was greeted by spectators tearing off jewellery to throw onto the field.
England v India
1932-06-25
On 25 June 1932 India played its first Test, against England at Lord's, captained by Cottari Kanakaiya Nayudu after the Maharaja of Porbandar quietly stood aside on the morning of the match. India lost by 158 runs, but Mohammad Nissar took 5 for 93 with raw fast bowling, Amar Singh chipped in with 2/75 and 74 with the bat, and CK Nayudu stiffened the order. India had become the sixth Test-playing nation, after Australia, England, South Africa, West Indies and New Zealand.
Sussex v Northamptonshire
1929-05-15
On 15 May 1929 the 24-year-old K.S. Duleepsinhji — Ranji's nephew and the second member of the family to play county cricket for Sussex — made 333 against Northamptonshire at Hove, then a Sussex record and the highest score made on the south coast in county cricket.
Australia v England
1928-11-30
On 30 November 1928 the 20-year-old Don Bradman made his Test debut against England at the Exhibition Ground in Brisbane. He scored 18 and 1 as Australia were beaten by 675 runs — the largest defeat in Test history at the time — and was dropped for the next Test before returning to begin a career that would average 99.94.
Nottinghamshire and English county cricket
1928-09-30
Across the 1927 and 1928 county seasons the 23-year-old Notts miner Harold Larwood took 100, 138 and then 138 wickets — establishing himself as the fastest bowler in England and securing his place in the 1928-29 Ashes side that would, four years later, take its leg-theory plans to Australia.
Australia v England
1925-02-27
On Test debut at the SCG in February 1925, the 33-year-old leg-spinner Clarrie Grimmett took 5 for 45 and 6 for 37 against Hobbs, Sutcliffe and Hendren. The 11 for 82 was, and remains, one of the great Test debut performances by a wrist-spinner — a late beginning to a career that would yield 216 Test wickets.
Sussex and England
1923-09-15
Through 1922 and 1923, on the advice of his Sussex captain Arthur Gilligan, the 28-year-old off-spinner Maurice Tate switched to fast-medium swing bowling. The change produced 219 wickets in 1923, his Test debut against South Africa at Edgbaston in 1924, and the bowling career that became the model for the English fast-medium swing tradition.
Australia
1919-10-15
Roy Park, who had served as a doctor with the Australian Army Medical Corps in France, returned to club cricket in Melbourne in late 1919. Within fifteen months he would play a single Test for Australia at Melbourne, face one ball, be bowled for a duck, and never play another. The 1919 comeback is the start of one of cricket's strangest career arcs.
Australia, England
1907-12-13
Charlie Macartney, picked as a left-arm spinner with handy lower-order batting, made his Test debut at Sydney in December 1907. Kent's KL Hutchings, observing Macartney's confident demeanour at the wicket, dubbed him 'The Governor-General' — a name meant ironically (Macartney was barely 21) but one that stuck for the rest of his career.
England, Australia
1905-07-24
Reginald Herbert Spooner made his Test debut for England v Australia at Old Trafford on 24 July 1905, having been one of the most-talked-about batsmen of the unbeaten Lancashire side of 1903-04. A stylist in the Trumper mould, he played 10 Tests, made 247 v Notts in 1903 (a Lancashire record), and shared a 368-run opening stand with Archie MacLaren the same year.
England, Australia
1903-12-11
Reginald Erskine 'Tip' Foster scored 287 on Test debut at Sydney in December 1903, then the highest individual score in Test cricket. It remained a world record until 1930 and is still the highest score by any Test debutant. Foster's epic dragged England, captained by Plum Warner, from 73 for 3 to a first innings of 577 and the platform for an Ashes-winning campaign.
England, Australia
1901-12-13
Sydney Barnes, then a Lancashire League professional with seven first-class matches to his name, made his Test debut at the Sydney Cricket Ground on 13 December 1901, taking 5 for 65. He went on to take 19 wickets in his first two Tests before injury ended his tour. Barnes' career was unique: 27 Tests, 189 wickets at 16.43, but only 47 first-class County Championship matches, his preference being the better-paid Minor Counties and Lancashire League.
England, Australia
1899-06-01
Wilfred Rhodes made his Test debut at Trent Bridge in June 1899 — the same match that proved to be W.G. Grace's last Test. Rhodes' Test career would span 30 years 313 days, the longest in history; he would also be the oldest Test player ever (52 years 165 days). Through the 1900s he was first England's slow left-arm spinner and then, by 1909, an opening batsman.
England v Australia
1899-06-01
On 1-3 June 1899, in the first Test ever played at Trent Bridge, the 50-year-old W.G. Grace captained England against Australia. He made 28 and 1, dropped catches at point, and was barracked by the Nottingham crowd over his fielding. Three days after the match he resigned the captaincy and his place. The same Test marked the debuts of Wilfred Rhodes (21) and Victor Trumper (21) — Rhodes would play with Bradman in his last Test; Trumper would become Australia's first cricketing icon.
England v Australia
1899-06-01
On 1 June 1899, the 21-year-old Yorkshire left-arm spinner Wilfred Rhodes opened England's bowling against Australia at Trent Bridge and took 4 for 58 in 35.1 overs on debut. The same Test marked W.G. Grace's last appearance. Rhodes would play another 57 Tests across the next 31 years, finishing with the longest Test career in cricket history — the only man to play with both W.G. Grace and Don Bradman.
Australia v England
1898-01-01
On 1 January 1898 at the MCG, Montague Alfred Noble — a 24-year-old New South Wales medium-pacer and middle-order batsman — made his Test debut against Stoddart's England. He took 6 for 49 in England's second innings as Australia won by an innings and 55 runs. It was the start of a 42-Test career, fifteen as captain, that would produce 121 Test wickets at 25.00 and a reputation as Australia's most complete all-rounder before Keith Miller.
England v Australia
1896-07-18
On 18 July 1896 K.S. Ranjitsinhji, 23, a Cambridge graduate from Nawanagar, walked out at Old Trafford for his Test debut and made 62 in the first innings and an unbeaten 154 in the second — including 113 between the start of the third morning and lunch, becoming the first batsman to score a century before lunch in Test cricket. The MCC selectors had refused him for the First Test on grounds that were widely understood to be racial; Lancashire's local committee picked him for Manchester. Australia won the Test, but the leg-glanced 154* changed cricket's conversation about who could play it.
Australia v England
1895-01-11
On Test debut at Adelaide in January 1895, the 21-year-old Victorian all-rounder Albert Trott — playing alongside his older brother and captain Harry — batted at number ten for 38 not out and 72 not out (an unbeaten 110 in the match) and took 8 for 43 in England's second innings. Australia won by 382 runs. It was statistically the most complete Test debut in cricket history; within four years Trott would, for separate reasons, never play Test cricket for Australia again.
England v Australia
1893-07-17
Francis Stanley Jackson, a 22-year-old Cambridge captain and Harrow product, made his Test debut for England against Australia at Lord's in July 1893. He scored 91 in his only innings and took 4 wickets, an introduction so commanding that he was retained for every home Ashes Test for the next twelve years and would, in 1905, captain England to the most one-sided Ashes series of the era.
England v Australia
1880-09-06
On 6 September 1880, in the very first Test match played in England, the 32-year-old WG Grace opened the innings with his elder brother EM and went on to score 152 — the first Test century by an England batsman, on debut and on home soil. England won by five wickets. The Grace family's three brothers (WG, EM and GF) all played, the only time three brothers have appeared together in a Test match.