Wicket with the Very First Ball of the Test: Mitchell Starc Breaks a 22-Year-Old World Record
Mackay: Teams generally spend at least several days preparing intensively before taking the field for a five-day Test match. If a batter is dismissed with the very first ball of the match, all those days of preparation can seem to have gone to waste. That is exactly what happened to Bangladesh opener Shadman Islam on Saturday.
The match had barely begun when 31-year-old left-handed batter Shadman took his stance. The umpire signalled to Australia’s Mitchell Starc to bowl the first delivery of the Test. Starc ran in and delivered a ball that pitched on middle stump before moving towards off stump. Shadman edged it to Cameron Green, stationed at gully, and was dismissed off the very first ball.
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But the story did not end there. By taking that wicket, Mitchell Starc created a new world record in the 149-year history of Test cricket.
Saturday marked the fourth time Starc had taken a wicket with the very first ball of a Test match, setting a new world record. Before Saturday, no bowler had ever taken a wicket with the opening delivery of a Test on four occasions. Starc achieved the feat by dismissing Shadman.
In 2004, 22 years ago, West Indies left-arm fast bowler Pedro Collins took a wicket with the first ball of a Test for the third time. He had achieved the feat three times between 2002 and 2004.
Even more remarkably, all three of Collins’ victims were Bangladesh batter Hannan Sarkar. Hannan was dismissed by Collins with the first ball of a Test on three consecutive occasions.
Coming back to Starc, his three previous instances of dismissing an opener with the first ball of a Test came in 2016, when he dismissed Dimuth Karunaratne; in 2022, when he dismissed Rory Burns; and in 2024, when he dismissed Yashasvi Jaiswal.
Among Indian bowlers, Kapil Dev has taken a wicket with the first ball of a Test twice, while Syed Abid Ali achieved the feat once.