It is a pretty rare phenomenon to see a bowler take a hat-trick in cricket. Dismissing batters on three consecutive deliveries is a difficult task for any bowler.

But a few bowlers were lucky to achieve this feat in the longer format, often turning the matches on their heads. This sudden fall of wickets also helped their teams gain a slight advantage over their opponents.

Here we’ll see which teams have taken the most hat-tricks in Test cricket.

Most Test Hat-Tricks by Teams

TeamNo. of Hat-tricksNo. of PlayersFirst Hat-trick By
England1514Willie Bates
Australia119Frederick Spofforth
Pakistan65Wasim Akram
West Indies44Wess Hall
India33Harbhajan Singh
Bangladesh22Alok Kapali
New Zealand22Peter Petherick
South Africa22Geoff Griffin
Sri Lanka22Nuwan Zoysa
Zimbabwe11Andy Blignaut

Find the same record for ODIs and T20Is here.

Key Insights

10: England have racked up the most hat-tricks in Test cricket, with 14 bowlers recording this rare feat 15 times. Australia are the other team to have more than 10 Test hat-tricks.

1: Australia’s Frederick Spofforth registered the first-ever hat-trick in cricket. The former pacer dismissed England’s three batters on consecutive balls in the 1879 Melbourne Test.

2: Hugh Trumble, Thomas Matthews (both Australia), Wasim Akram (Pakistan), and Stuart Broad (England) are the only four bowlers to take two hat-tricks in Test cricket.

Among them, Broad and Akram are part of the highest wicket-takers in international cricket across formats.

Interestingly, Matthews both hat-tricks came in the same match against South Africa in 1912, while Akram’s hat-tricks came in consecutive Tests against Sri Lanka in 1999.

Trumble is the other bowler to grab both hat-tricks against the same opposition, England, almost two years apart in 1902 and 1904 at the MCG. 

3: England’s Maurice Allom, New Zealand’s Peter Petherick, and Australia’s Damien Fleming are the only three bowlers to take hat-tricks on their Test debuts.

2: Two bowlers from the West Indies and one from Australia share a record of completing their hat-tricks across two innings of a Test against each other’s teams.

The West Indies’ Courtney Walsh and Australia’s Merv Hughes took hat-tricks in such a way in Brisbane and Perth Tests, respectively, during the 1988/89 series between both teams. Jermaine Lawson emulated the feat in the 2003 Bridgetown while playing for the Windies against Australia.

0: No bowlers from Afghanistan and Ireland have not picked up any hat-tricks in Test cricket thus far. Bowlers from other 10 Test nations have taken at least one hat-trick.

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