It was the 1512th Test match in cricket history. It was India's 334th and Bangladesh's first Test in cricket
history. Bangladesh became the tenth country to play Test cricket. It was the ninth Test match in Bangladesh. All the nine Tests
have been played at National Stadium, Dhaka. Seven matches were
played when Bangladesh was a part of East Pakistan and the one was
played last year between Pakistan and Sri Lanka which was the final
of the Asian Test Championship. 14 players were making their Test debut in this match-all eleven
Bangladeshis and three Indians. Only on seven occasions more players
had made debut in a Test. Obviously the first ever Test match
(Melbourne,1886-87) in cricket history holds the top slot in which 22
players (11 Australians and Englishmen each) made their debut. 17
players made debut in a Test on three occasions. In one Test sixteen
players made their debut. There are two Test matches in which 15
players made their debut. The accompanying table has the details:
Debutants Countries Test Venue Season
22 Aus (11)+ v Eng (11)+ 1st Melbourne 1876-77
17 SA (11)+ v Eng (6) 1st Port Elizabeth 1888-89
17 SA (9) v Eng (8) only Cape Town 1891-92
17 NZ (11)+ v Eng (6) 1st Christchurch 1929-30
16 SA (7) v Eng (9) 1st Port Elizabeth 1895-96
15 Eng (8) v Aus (7) only The Oval 1880
(The first Test match to be played in England)
15 SA (6) v En (9) 1st Johannesburg 1898-99
14 WI (3) v SA (11)+ only Bridgetown 1991-92
(South Africa's return to Test cricket after 22 years)
(Note: Kepler Wessels made his debut for South Africa though
he had played Test cricket for Australia)
14 Ban (11) + v Ind (3) only Dhaka 2000-01
13 Eng (2) v WI (11) + 1st Lord's 1928
13 NZ (6) v Aus (7) only Wellington 1945-46
+ denotes country's inaugural Test match
Saba Karim became the 26th player to keep wickets in a Test for
India. Interestingly Karim had made his first class cricket debut way
back in 1982-83 and he was playing in his 118th first class match.
Karim now holds the record of donning the Indian cap after most first
class matches. The previous record was held by Robin Singh who made
his Test debut after 109 first class macthes. Zaheer Khan became the tenth left-arm pace bowler to appear for
India in Tests. The others being Hiralal Gaekwad (1952-53), S
Nyalchand (1952-53), Ghulam Guard (1958-1960), Rusi Surti (1960-61 to
1969-70) Umesh Kulkarni (1967-68), Karsan Ghavri (1974-1981), Dhiraj
Parsana (1978-79), Rashid Patel (1988-89) and Ashish Nehra (1998-99). India played for the first time without Anil Kumble since the
Harare Test against Zimbabwe in October 1992. Since then he had
appeared in 60 consecutive Test matches. Only Sunil Gavaskar (106),
Gundappa Viswanath (87), Sachin Tendulkar (77-unbroken), Mohammad
Azharuddin (69) and Kapil Dev (66 and 65 in two separate sequences)
have played more consecutive matches for India than Kumble. Saurav Ganguly became the 27th player to captain India in a Test
match. He is also the second from Bengal to do so after Pankaj Roy
(against England at Lord's 1959). At 28 years 125 days Saurav Ganguly became the eighth youngest
Indian captain after Nawab of Pataudi junior (22 years 77 days),
Sachin Tendulkar (23-170), Kapil Dev (24-48), Ravi Shastri (25-229),
Nari Contractor (26-153), Sunil Gavaskar (26-198) and Mohammad
Azharuddin (26-359). Incidentally Nawab of Pataudi holds the world
record of leading a Test side at the youngest age. Umpires David Shephed and Steve Bucknor officiated in their 54th
and 52nd match respectively. It was the tenth occasion when India played a one-off Test
match-the first ever was played in 1932 against England. India's
record in one-off Test matches is given in the accompanying table :
Season Opponent Venue P W L D
1932 Eng in England 1 0 1 0
1979-80 Eng in India 1 0 1 0
1982-83 SL in India 1 0 0 1
1990-91 SL in India 1 1 0 0
1992-93 Zim in Zimbabwe 1 0 0 1
1992-93 Zim in India 1 1 0 0
1993-94 NZ in New Zealand 1 0 0 1
1996-97 Aus in India 1 1 0 0
1998-99 Zim in Zimbabwe 1 0 1 0
2000-01 Ban in Bangladesh 1 1 0 0
TOTAL 10 4 3 3
Aminul Islam,by scoring 145 in the first innings, became only
the third batsman in Test history to score a hundred in a country's
inaugural Test after Australian Charles Bannerman (165 retired hurt v
England at Melbourne in 1886-87) and Zimbabwean Dave Houghton (121 v
India at Harare in 1992-93). Islam also became the 45th batsman in
Test annals to score a hundred in his debut innings. Bangladesh's total (400) is the second highest by a country in
its inaugural Test after Zimbabwe's 456 also against India at Harare
in 1992-93. For the eleventh time in Indian Test history a total of 400 plus
was achieved without a century. The total (429) is also the seventh
highest such total for India. Incidentally India holds the world
record of highest total without an individual century. India had made
524 for nine against New Zealand at Kanpur in 1976-77 with all
batsmen getting into double figures and six even making fifty but
none going beyond 70. Murali Kartik's 43 was the joint fourth highest by an Indian
"nightwatchman" in Tests. The highest such individual scores for
India are:
Score Vs Inn Test Season Venue in@ endofday out@
Kirmani SMH 101* Aus 1st 6th 1979-80 Mumbai 231-3 231-3 458-8
Nadkarni RG 61 WI 1st 5th 1961-62 Kingston 26-5 33-5 178
Amar Singh L 48 Eng 2nd 3rd 1933-34 Chennai 45-2 65-2 120-4
Kapil Dev N 43 Pak 2nd 2nd 1978-79 Lahore 301-3 307-3 371-4
Kartik M 43 Ban 1st only 2000-01 Dhaka 66-1 81-1 175-4
Kumble A 42 SA 2nd 3rd 1996-97 Kanpur 2-1 7-1 91-3
Raju SLV 31 NZ 1st 1st 1989-90 Ch'church 88-3 97-3 164
Kumble A 29 Zim 1st 1st 1998-99 Harare 2-1 6-1 49-3
Kirmani SMH 29 Aus 2nd 3rd 1977-78 Melbourne 40-1 50-1 89-2
Saurav Ganguly's innings (84) is the third highest by an Indian
in his first innings as captain after Vijay Hazare's 164* (v England
at Delhi in 1951-52) and Sunil Gavaskar's 116 (v New Zealand at
Auckland in 1975-76). Sunil Joshi became only the seventh Indian to score fifty plus
runs in an innings and capture a five wicket innings haul in the same
match after Lala Amarnath (50 & 5 for 118 v England at Lord's in
1946), Vinoo Mankad (72 and 184 & 5 for 196 v England at Lord's in
1952), Dattu Phadkar (57 & 5 for 72 v Pakistan at Calcutta in
1952-53), Polly Umrigar (56 and 172* & 5 for 107 v Port-of-Spain in
1961-62), Rusi Surti (70 and 53 & 5 for 74 v Australia at Adelaide in
1967-68), and Kapil Dev (84 & 7 for 56 at Chennai in 1979-80,89 & 5
for 125 at Lord's in 1982 and 73 & 5 for 102 v Pakistan at Karachi in
1982-83). Naimur Rahman's figures (6-132) are the second best by a bowler
in his country's inaugural Test after Australian Tom Kendall's 7 for
55 against England at Melbourne in 1876-77. However Rahman now holds
the record of returning the best figures by a bowler in first innings
of his country's inaugural Test. The previous record was on the name
of Australian Billy Midwinter who took 5 for 78 against England at
Melbourne in 1876-77. Bangladesh's second innings total of 91 is the third lowest
recorded against India in an innings after Sri Lanka's 82 at
Chandigarh in 1990-91 and Australia's 83 at Melbourne in 1980-81. The disparity of 309 runs between Bangladesh's two innings is
the second greatest against India. Australia had a disparity of 336
runs when it made 419 and 83 at Melbourne in 1980-81. Sunil Joshi became the eighth Indian to score as much as
opposition team in a completed innings. Dilip Vengsarkar has done so
on three occasions. The details:
Score Vs Inns Oppn. Inns Test Venue Season
Kambli, VG 227 Zim 1st 201 2nd 1st Delhi 1992-93
Mankad, MH 223 NZ 1st 136 2nd 2nd Mumbai 1955-56
Azharuddin, M 182 Eng 1st 163 1st 1st Calcutta 1992-93
Vengsarkar, DB 166 SL 1st 142 2nd 3rd Cuttack 1986-87
Vengsarkar, DB 153 SL 1st 141 2nd 2nd Nagpur 1986-87
Azharuddin, M 152 SL 1st 119 1st 3rd Ahmedabad 1993-94
Viswanath, GR 114 Aus 1st 83 2nd 3rd Melbourne 1980-81
Vengsarkar, DB 102* Eng 2nd 102 2nd 2nd Leeds 1986
Joshi, SB 92 Ban 1st 91 2nd only Dhaka 2000-01
Shastri, RJ 88 SL 1st 82 1st 1st Chandigarh 1990-91
Chauhan, CPS 85 Aus 2nd 83 1st 3rd Melbourne 1980-81
The victory was India's only 14th in an 'away' Test in 157
matches. This also broke the Indian sequence of 22 consecutive
'winless' Tests on foreign soil since 1993-94 (v Sri Lanka at Colombo
PSS) to 1999-00 (v Australia at Sydney). The victory is also the biggest for India on foreign soil in
terms of wickets. India had won by eight wickets on two occasions-v
New Zealand at Wellington and Auckland in 1967-68 and 1975-76
respectively. By winning this Test Ganguly joined the elite band of four other
Indians who emerged victorious in their first assignment as captain.
Here-under is the complete list:
Captain Opp Venue Season Margin
Umrigar, PR NZ Mumbai 1955-56 Inns & 27 runs
Gavaskar, SM NZ Auckland 1975-76 8 wickets
Shastri, RJ WI Chennai 1987-88 255 runs
Tendulkar, SR Aus Delhi 1996-97 7 wickets
Ganguly, SC Ban Dhaka 2000-01 9 wickets
