Double Duck: Most pairs of zero scores recorded by Indian batsmen in Tests
Getting out for a duck is something no player wants to happen when he/she is at the batting crease. An even tougher event with the bat will be getting out for a duck in both innings of a match. Such occurrence is considered as ‘Pair’ and golden ducks in both innings is referred as ‘King Pair’. Quite a lot of people have recorded Pairs and Kings Pairs in Test cricket with most of them coming from the low-order batsmen and in tricky batting conditions.
Till date, a total of 39 players have bagged a pair in Test cricket while representing India which includes 11 of them recording it more than once. Only one of them has four pairs in this format who is none other than Bhagwat Chandrasekhar. The legendary leg-spinner was not much known for his skills with the bat which is why picked 242 wickets from 58 Test matches but scored just 167 runs from 80 innings he batted at an average of 4.07. Chandrasekhar also got out for a duck in Tests on as many as 23 instances.
Two of Chandrasekhar’s four pairs came in 1976 and two more in the 1977-78 tour of Australia. His four pairs are also the joint 2nd most for any player in Test cricket as Chris Martin tops the list with as many as seven pairs. Bishen Singh Bedi, who was a teammate of Chandrasekhar, was the first Indian to register three pairs in Test cricket. The former Indian captain had two pairs in 1974 and one more in the 1976 Delhi Test against England where Chandra also bagged a pair.
Ashish Nehra had played only 17 matches in his Test career but has as many as three pairs. Zaheer Khan, who has the 2nd most number of ducks in Test cricket for India, ended up bagging a pair on three occasions. All those three pairs came by 2004 itself but none in the next ten years until his retirement. Ajit Agarkar, often known as Bombay duck, has three pairs in the 26 Tests he played. He ended up with a pair in successive matches on the 1999-00 tour of Australia and registered one more pair when Aussies came to India in 2001.
(Stats as on December 7, 2020)
