Courtney Walsh was a lethal bowler in his heydays in Test cricket. He terrorised batters with his sheer pace, which fetched him 500+ wickets.
However, Walsh found himself clueless against his peers while holding the bat in his hand. And that’s why he holds an unpleasant record in the Test format.
Which record?
Getting out the most times on a duck!
In this article, we’ll look at the top 10 players with the most ducks in Test cricket.
Most Ducks in Test Cricket
Player | Innings | Ducks |
---|---|---|
Courtney Walsh (WI) | 185 | 43 |
Stuart Broad (ENG) | 244 | 39 |
Chris Martin (NZ) | 104 | 36 |
Glenn McGrath (AUS) | 138 | 35 |
Ishant Sharma (IND) | 142 | 34 |
Shane Warne (AUS) | 199 | 34 |
James Anderson (ENG) | 265 | 34 |
Muthiah Muralidaran (SL) | 164 | 33 |
Zaheer Khan (IND) | 127 | 29 |
Mervyn Dillon (WI) | 68 | 26 |
Key Insights
43: The West Indies’ Courtney Walsh holds the unwanted record for scoring the most ducks in the Test format. The former fast bowler returned to the pavilion with 43 ducks to his name, and he is the only one with 40+ ducks.
14: Out of the 33 ducks, Muthiah Muralidaran was dismissed on the score of zero on the first ball 14 times. Such occurrences are known as the ‘Golden Duck’, and Murali’s 14 first-ball ducks are the most in Test cricket.
5: Bob Holland, Ajit Agarkar, and Mohammad Asif etched their names in record books for scoring the most consecutive ducks in Tests. All 3 of them registered 5 consecutive ducks, with Holland dismissed for 2 golden ducks.
7: Chris Martin recorded 36 ducks in his Test career, but what’s fascinating is in 7 matches he got out on a duck in both innings. That’s a total of 14 ducks, and when a batter is dismissed on zero in both innings of a match, it’s known as a pair. So, Martin, with 7 pairs, has the undesirable record for registering the most pairs in the longer format.
23: King Pair is even more of an embarrassing feat that no player on this planet would like to achieve in their career. However, over 23 players have been dismissed on the first ball in both innings of a match without scoring a run.