Flashback: The only England player to bag a pair on debut in an Ashes Test
Representing your country in Test format is an ideal achievement for a player growing up. It becomes sweeter if a batter manages to play substantial innings in his first game. No batter likes to get out on a duck and surely not on debut. If it’s a pair, it is even more disastrous. But England’s Graham Gooch recorded this unwanted feat 47 years back.
In cricketing terms, a pair means when a player gets out without opening his account in both the innings of a Test. Getting out for a golden duck (dismissed on the first ball) in both innings defines a king pair in the longest format of the game. Gooch, who played 118 Test matches for England, ended up with 13 ducks to his name.
Gooch had a debut to forget in Test cricket. The right-handed batter made his maiden Test appearance against Australia in the first match of the 1975 Ashes series in Birmingham. Australia batted first and got bundled out for 359 in the first innings. In reply, Gooch came in to bat at no. five and got dismissed for a duck.
He faced three deliveries with Aussie pacer Max Walker taking his wicket. Gooch’s England got all out for just 101 as the visitors enforced the follow-on. In the second innings, Gooch batted at the same position and this time bagged a seven-ball duck, dismissed by Jeff Thomson.
The former England batting maestro is still the third-highest run-getter for his country in the format. In 215 innings, he struck 8900 runs at an average of 42.58 with 20 centuries and 46 half-centuries. His highest score of 333 is the most scored by any player at the home of cricket, Lord’s. In total, English players have managed to bag a pair 41 times and Gooch remains the only one to do so on debut.
