Every person who chooses sports as a profession do it with the ultimate aim of representing their country in that sports at the highest level and bring laurels to both themselves as well as their country. Same applies for professional cricketers also. Although representing one’s country in either of the the formats of cricket- T20I, ODI or Test- is no mean feat, it’s the selection in national Test team that brings most satisfaction for a player as Test cricket is considered the pinnacle of competitive cricket. Hence the first Test cap and the memories associated with a Test debut is one of the most treasured possessions for a cricket player. Especially for those who achieve something extraordinary in their first appearance at the international stage itself.

The ongoing SCG test saw two debutants for the game, one from either side: Will Pucovski became the 460th player to represent Australia while Navdeep Saini,299th player to play for India. Australia won the toss and opted to bat first, the day was marred by rain interruptions. Pucovski after getting a lifeline on 26 by Pant off Ashwin, went on to register a half-century. In the battle of debutants, Saini prevailed as he traps Pucovski right in front of stumps with a full ball.

How often did an Indian debutant scalped an opponent debutant in a test match?

Note : All stats are pertaining to India’s matches

The last such occurrence was the famous Kolkata test, part of the little master farewell series when Shami cleaned up West Indian Sheldon Cottrell. Will Pucovski Saini’s combination is the twenty-second such instance in test cricket by an Indian. The first pair was during team India’s inaugural Test at Lords in 1932. Amar Singh dismissed Yorkshire fast bowler Bill Bowes in the England first inns. Peter Siddle, New Zealand’s Martin Snedden, and Windies Cottrell were the unfortunate ones to be dismissed on 🦆 . Snedden and Cottrell are the only batsman to be dismissed more than once, both by the same bowler in each innings, Shastri and Shami respectively.

How about different ways of dismissal ?

Siddle and Paul Taylor were stumped, the most frequent mode of dismissal was caught by another player with as many as nine players. The furniture of seven players were dismissed. While four were trapped in front of the wicket. Zaheer Khan holds the record of dismissing most number of times a debutant on his debut, during the Dhaka test 2000.

BS Chandrasekhar was the first player to dismiss two different debutants in the same innings. The leg spinner castled English gloveman, Jimmy Binks and John Price. Jimmy Binks remains the only debutant keeper to de dismissed on debut by an Indian debutant.

Will Pucovski’s first dismissal was also Saini’s first dismissal? Was this the first such instance in Indian test history? If not, how often has such an event occurred in the past?

Which debutant has scored the most run against team India before being dismissed by a fellow debutant?

The record is held by England’s former batsman Bryan Valentine who scored a century,136 runs in the 1933 Bombay test before being dismissed by Jamshedji. He remains the only player to score a century in this event of debutants. Overall three batsman have scored half-century including recently made by Pucovski.

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