Most Test Debutant Centurions by Teams
| Team | Debut Test Centurions | First Debut Centurion |
|---|---|---|
| Australia | 21 | Charles Bannerman |
| England | 20 | William Grace |
| India | 17 | Lala Amarnath |
| West Indies | 15 | George Headley |
| Pakistan | 14 | Khalid Ibadulla |
| New Zealand | 12 | John Mills |
| South Africa | 7 | Andrew Hudson |
| Bangladesh | 4 | Aminul Islam |
| Sri Lanka | 4 | Brendon Kuruppu |
| Ireland | 2 | Kevin O’Brien |
| Zimbabwe | 2 | Dave Houghton |
| Afghanistan | 1 | Ismat Alam |
See the equivalent records for ODIs and T20Is in our comprehensive analyses.
Key Insights
Australia and England are the two teams with 20 or more batters who scored centuries on their Test debuts.
Australia’s Charles Bannerman was the first debutant to score a hundred in Test cricket. He scored an unbeaten 165 against England in the first-ever Test match in 1877.
Zimbabwe’s Dave Houghton, Bangladesh’s Aminul Islam, and Ireland’s Kevin O’Brien are the other debutant batters to bring up centuries in their respective teams’ debut Test matches. Houghton and Islam did so against India in 1992 and 2000, respectively, while O’Brien did it against Pakistan in 2018. Interestingly, all three instances came on their home soil.
Houghton, Islam, and O’Brien share one common fact. All three of them were above 30 on their Test debuts. Seven more debut centurions were 30-plus, with Australia’s Adam Voges being the oldest Test debutant to score a hundred. At 35 years and 242 days, Voges smashed an unbeaten 130 against the West Indies in 2015.
On the other hand, Mohammad Ashraful is the youngest debutant to score a Test hundred. He was 17 years and 61 days old when he aggregated a 114-run knock against Sri Lanka in 2001.
Somehow no one in the list of the youngest and oldest ten Test debutants (top-10s) have crossed the triple-digit mark on their Test debut.
New Zealand and the West Indies have two Test debutants each who converted their hundreds into double centuries.
Lawrence Rowe and Yasir Hameed are the two batters to bring up two hundreds in their debut Test match. Rowe was the first to do so for the West Indies with his scores of 214 and 100 not out against New Zealand in 1972. Hameed imitated the feat for Pakistan with 170 and 105 against Bangladesh in 2003. See which players in their Test career have achieved the twin centuries feat more than once in their career.
England’s Tip Foster has aggregated the highest individual score on Test debut. He scored 287 runs against Australia in the 1903 Sydney Test.
India’s Shikhar Dhawan has scored the fastest hundred by a Test debutant. He needed 85 balls to reach the mark against Australia in the 2013 Mohali Test. Dhawan later went on to score 187, which is the highest score on Test debut for India.
England and Australia are the two teams with 90 or more instances of batters scoring a fifty-plus score on their Test debuts.
