India’s Sai Sudharsan became the latest name in a long list of Indian players who were dismissed for a duck on their Test debuts when he was snapped up by English skipper Ben Stokes in the 1st Test between England and India at Leeds on Friday.
The wicket of Sudharsan was a well-laid out plan for England with Stokes adding a gully alongside a leg slip. He bowled on Sudharsan’s legs and the debutant ended up nicking one behind to wicketkeeper Jamie Smith. India had started the day on a steady note with Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul both scoring 42 runs respectively before the latter was dismissed by Brydon Carse.
Stokes’ decision to bowl first might have stemmed from the transformed nature of Headingley track which has become a batter’s ally in the last decade, and that character was visible in the first session of the match itself. There was a hint of movement and swing for the pacers, but the Indian openers were well up to the task on a largely sunny morning. An England attack that did not have either James Anderson or Stuart Broad in its roster did not seem to have the ammunition to trouble the Indian batters on a rather flaccid pitch.
Coming to Indian debutants who scored a duck in their first Test match innings, C T Sarwate was the first Indian to achieve that unwanted record in the 1946 match against England. The last player to have that record before Sudharsan was Umesh Yadav in 2011 against West Indies.
| Player | Opposition | Match | Ground |
| C T Sarwate | England | 20/07/1946 | Old Trafford |
| J K Irani | Australia | 28/11/1947 | Brisbane Cricket Ground |
| S A Banerjee | West Indies | 31/12/1948 | Eden Gardens |
| Ghulam Ahmed | West Indies | 31/12/1948 | Eden Gardens |
| S P Gupte | England | 30/12/1951 | Eden Gardens |
| G S Ramchand | England | 05/06/1952 | Headingley |
| Jasubhai Patel | Pakistan | 26/02/1955 | National Stadium (Karachi) |
| M S Hardikar | West Indies | 28/11/1958 | Brabourne Stadium |
| V M Muddiah | Australia | 12/12/1959 | Arun Jaitley Stadium |
| M M Sood | Australia | 13/01/1960 | Nehru Stadium (Chennai) |
| B S Chandrasekhar | England | 21/01/1964 | Brabourne Stadium |
| U N Kulkarni | Australia | 23/12/1967 | Adelaide Oval |
| E D Solkar | New Zealand | 15/10/1969 | Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium |
| G R Viswanath | Australia | 15/11/1969 | Green Park |
| D D Parsana | West Indies | 12/01/1979 | MA Chidambaram Stadium |
| N S Yadav | Australia | 02/10/1979 | Green Park |
| K Srikkanth | England | 27/11/1981 | Wankhede Stadium |
| Maninder Singh | Pakistan | 23/12/1982 | National Stadium (Karachi) |
| Rashid Patel | New Zealand | 24/11/1988 | Wankhede Stadium |
| V Razdan | Pakistan | 23/11/1989 | Iqbal Stadium |
| A Kuruvilla | West Indies | 06/03/1997 | Sabina Park |
| R Vijay Bhardwaj | New Zealand | 10/10/1999 | PCA IS Bindra Stadium |
| D J Gandhi | New Zealand | 10/10/1999 | PCA IS Bindra Stadium |
| Robin Singh | New Zealand | 02/01/1999 | Seddon Park |
| Parthiv Patel | England | 08/08/2002 | Trent Bridge |
| Ajay Ratra | West Indies | 19/04/2002 | Queen’s Park Oval |
| Wriddhiman Saha | South Africa | 06/02/2010 | VCA Stadium, Nagpur |
| R Ashwin | West Indies | 06/11/2011 | Arun Jaitley Stadium |
| Umesh Yadav | West Indies | 06/11/2011 | Arun Jaitley Stadium |
| Sai Sudharsan | England | 20/06/2025 | Headingley |