Panesar joins the giantkillers

When an arm ball trapped Sachin Tendulkar plumb in front to give Mudhsuden Singh Panesar, aka Monty, his first Test wicket, his mad-as-a-march-hare celebration was lovely to watch. The List this week looks at the most valuable first wickets in Tests. The calculation is based on the batsman's aggregate at the start of the game.

Panesar's wicket of Tendulkar, who had 10,386 runs at the time, at Nagpur is a shoo-in at the top of the list. On Sri Lanka's tour of India in 1986-87, debutant Graeme Labrooy had Sunil Gavaskar caught for 176 as his first Test wicket in the first Test at Nagpur. In the next Test, part-timer Asanka Gurusinha also opened his wicket-tally with Gavaskar's scalp.

As Steve Waugh began the conquest of his `final frontier' with a ten-wicket rout of India at Mumbai, he became Rahul Sanghvi's first wicket. Sanghvi went on to dismiss Shane Warne as well with his left-arm spin, but conceded 67 runs in 10.2 overs. He hasn't played another Test since.

Most valuable first wicket - by batsman's career runs - Tests

Bowler	Team	Opposition	Season	Batsman	Runs	Ave	Scorecard
MS Panesar	Eng	v India	2005/06	SR Tendulkar	10386	56.14	Test 1785
AR Caddick	Eng	v Aust	1993	AR Border	10262	51.05	Test 1223
AP Gurusinha	SL	v India	1986/87	SM Gavaskar	9748	51.30	Test 1063
GF Labrooy	SL	v India	1986/87	SM Gavaskar	9572	50.64	Test 1061
SE Bond	NZ	v Aust	2001/02	SR Waugh	9289	51.60	Test 1571
RL Sanghvi	India	v Aust	2000/01	SR Waugh	8722	51.00	Test 1531
JDP Oram	NZ	v India	2002/03	SR Tendulkar	8711	58.46	Test 1631
TA Munton	Eng	v Pak	1992	Javed Miandad	8263	54.36	Test 1191
IDK Salisbury	Eng	v Pak	1992	Javed Miandad	8254	55.02	Test 1190
KBJ Azad	India	v Eng	1981/82	G Boycott	7802	47.86	Test 911
SB Styris	NZ	v WI	2002	BC Lara	7524	49.50	Test 1608
TM Alderman	Aust	v Eng	1981	G Boycott	7410	49.07	Test 903
GS Chappell	Aust	v Eng	1970/71	MC Cowdrey	7256	46.21	Test 675
Arshad Khan	Pak	v Aust	1998/99	MA Taylor	7213	44.80	Test 1427
Nadeem Khan	Pak	v WI	1992/93	DL Haynes	7163	42.38	Test 1222

Of Test cricket's 15 leading wicket-takers, only Imran Khan went wicketless in his debut game. He bowled 28 overs without success in the drawn first Test of Pakistan's tour of England in 1971. He faced three years on the sidelines after that and returned for Pakistan's 1974 tour of England and took three wickets at Leeds, Tony Greig being his first.

Leading bowler's first wicket - Tests

Bowler	Team	Opposition	Season	Batsman	Runs	Ave	Scorecard
SK Warne	Aust	v India	1991/92	RJ Shastri	3554	35.53	Test 1181
M Muralitharan	SL	v Aust	1992	CJ McDermott	563	11.97	Test 1195
GD McGrath	Aust	v NZ	1993/94	MJ Greatbatch	1626	40.64	Test 1235
CA Walsh	WI	v Aust	1984/85	GM Wood	2642	33.87	Test 997
A Kumble	India	v Eng	1990	AJ Lamb	3775	36.29	Test 1149
N Kapil Dev	India	v Pak	1978/79	Sadiq Mohammad	2330	38.83	Test 831
RJ Hadlee	NZ	v Pak	1972/73	Asif Iqbal	1162	31.40	Test 710
Wasim Akram	Pak	v NZ	1984/85	JG Wright	1821	30.86	Test 1010
CEL Ambrose	WI	v Pak	1987/88	Mudassar Nazar	3876	40.79	Test 1095
SM Pollock	SAf	v Eng	1995/96	GP Thorpe	1658	43.63	Test 1312
IT Botham	Eng	v Aust	1977	GS Chappell	3972	55.16	Test 806
MD Marshall	WI	v India	1978/79	CPS Chauhan	716	29.83	Test 837
Waqar Younis	Pak	v India	1989/90	SV Manjrekar	215	30.71	Test 1127
Imran Khan	Pak	v Eng	1974	AW Greig	1858	46.45	Test 742
DK Lillee	Aust	v Eng	1970/71	JH Edrich	3102	48.46	Test 678

The most valuable first wicket in terms of the average of the batsman dismissed belongs to Norman Yardley who returned after an eight-year rest to take the wicket of Don Bradman, then aggregating 5280 runs at 99.62, in his third Test.

Given that Tendulkar has held the record for most ODI runs for several years now, he expectedly holds the top two spots on the the ODI list as well for being the most valuable wicket.