There have been many debutants in Test cricket who have performed extremely well in their first match and set high level for themselves. On the other side there have also been debutants who have not performed well and as a result, expectations from them haven’t been that high.
But one should also remember that even Sachin didn’t score a century on his debut in Test cricket but today no one has scored more runs than him as well. Hence we can say that we shouldn’t judge a player on his debut. But yet debut match does count to make an impression and that’s what these players have failed to do. Here is a list of bowlers with worst debut figures in Test cricket –
| Name | Overs | Maidens | Runs | Wickets | Opposition | Ground | Debut Date |
| Pankaj Singh (Ind) | 47.0 | 12 | 179 | 0 | England | Southampton | 27 Jul 2014 |
| Sohail Khan (Pak) | 27.0 | 2 | 164 | 0 | Sri Lanka | Karachi | 21 Feb 2009 |
| Aaqib Javed (Pak) | 47.0 | 6 | 160 | 0 | New Zealand | Wellington | 10 Feb 1989 |
| Bryce McGain (Aus) | 18.0 | 2 | 149 | 0 | South Africa | Cape Town | 19 Mar 2009 |
| John Warr (Eng) | 36.0 | 4 | 142 | 0 | Australia | Sydney | 5 Jan 1951 |
| Bapu Nadkarni (Ind) | 57.0 | 14 | 142 | 0 | New Zealand | Delhi | 16 Dec 1955 |
| Alfred Scott (WI) | 44.0 | 9 | 140 | 0 | India | Kingston | 28 Mar 1953 |
| Tawanda Mupariwa (Zim) | 34.0 | 1 | 136 | 0 | Sri Lanka | Bulawayo | 14 May 2004 |
| Reon King (WI) | 28.0 | 2 | 130 | 0 | South Africa | Centurion | 15 Jan 1999 |
| Sam Cook (Eng) | 30.0 | 4 | 127 | 0 | South Africa | Nottingham | 7 Jun 1947 |
Pankaj Singh from India is the latest entrant in this list and he is on top. This wouldn’t have been the case if there would have been some luck on his side as a catch was dropped in the slip of his bowling in his first spell in the first innings itself and after that the story hasn’t been so good.
Had that catch been taken, he would have been a completely different bowler in this match and his stats would have been way better and Indian team would have again understood that catches do win matches.
Stat updated till 30 July 2014