In the first ever test match played between India and New Zealand, also the first ever at Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium (then known by the name of Fateh Maidan Club) Hyderabad, India in 1955/56, VN Swamy of India made his only test appearance. He did do nothing to earn another test cap. On the docile Pitch, he bowled 8 overs in the 1st innings and another 10 in the 2nd going wicketless in both the innings. He did not get a chance to bat in the only innings that India batted as they declared their innings at 498 for 4 decl with Polly Umrigar‘s 223 and centuries from Kripal Singh & Manjrekar. In the 2nd test of the same series played at Brabourne stadium, Bombay in which Vinoo Mankad hit exactly 223 as did Umrigar in the previous test. Sadashiv Patil who made his lone test appearance in this test made 14* in the only innings India batted and took a wicket in each of New Zealand’s innings. Patil also took a catch in the 2nd innings.
In the 4th test match of the same series played at Eden Gardens, Calcutta, Bombay's young wicket keeper, Chandrakant Patankar got a chance to represent India in a test match mainly due to the policy of encouraging youth, by the Selection Committee Chairman Lala Amarnath. Though Patnakar put up a decent performance by all means he never got a chance to play again after the regular wicket keeper Naren Tamhane came back again into the test side. Patankar made 13 in the 1st innings adding a valuable 37 runs with JM Ghorpade for the 8th wicket after India lost 7 wickets for 88 runs to help recover to a total of 132. He remained not out with 1 in the 2nd innings as India declared their innings closed for 438 for 7 after Ramchand completed his century. Patankar’s keeping too was very impressive as he took 3 catches and affected a stumping in New Zealand’s 1st innings.
Batting at no.7 Trevor Barber of New Zealand made 12 & 5 against West Indies in the 3rd test of the 1955/56 series at Wellington. He also caught Gary Sobers, who opened the West Indian 1st innings, of the bowling of John Reid for 27. New Zealand was dismissed for an identical total of 208 in both the innings and lost the match by 9 wickets. Next test of the same series gave Alphonso Roberts of West Indies his only appearance in test cricket. He made 28 & 0 and his only memory from this match could be that New Zealand recorded their first ever Test Victory after failing to register a win for 26 years and 45 tests.
Jack Rutherford and John Wilson of Australia made their test debut in the 2nd test of their 1956/57 series against India at Bombay and quickly disappeared into oblivion. Wilson did not get a chance to bat and Rutherford made a quick 30 in the only Innings that Australia batted. They both took one wicket a piece in India’s 2nd innings. Neither of them did take a catch.
Alistair ‘ Scotch’ Taylor opened the batting with Trevor Goddard for South Africa in the absence of Jacki McGlew in the first ever test match played at New Wanderers stadium , Johannesburg in 1956/57 series against England. He made 12 runs in 106 mts in the 1st innings and consumed and stayed at the wicket for another 48 minutes to collect just 6 runs in the South Africa’s 2nd innings total of 72. He never got another chance to play in test cricket once Jackie Mcglew returned the side in the next test.
Dick Richardson joined his brother Peter to play against West Indies at Trent Bridge in 1957 in the 3rd Test and provided only the 1st instance since 1891-92 of brother representing England in the same test. He made 33 in the only innings he came to bat whereas his brother Peter hit a century. Though Peter went to play more tests for England, for Dick it remained his only test appearance.
In the 4th test match of the same series played at Eden Gardens, Calcutta, Bombay's young wicket keeper, Chandrakant Patankar got a chance to represent India in a test match mainly due to the policy of encouraging youth, by the Selection Committee Chairman Lala Amarnath. Though Patnakar put up a decent performance by all means he never got a chance to play again after the regular wicket keeper Naren Tamhane came back again into the test side. Patankar made 13 in the 1st innings adding a valuable 37 runs with JM Ghorpade for the 8th wicket after India lost 7 wickets for 88 runs to help recover to a total of 132. He remained not out with 1 in the 2nd innings as India declared their innings closed for 438 for 7 after Ramchand completed his century. Patankar’s keeping too was very impressive as he took 3 catches and affected a stumping in New Zealand’s 1st innings.
Batting at no.7 Trevor Barber of New Zealand made 12 & 5 against West Indies in the 3rd test of the 1955/56 series at Wellington. He also caught Gary Sobers, who opened the West Indian 1st innings, of the bowling of John Reid for 27. New Zealand was dismissed for an identical total of 208 in both the innings and lost the match by 9 wickets. Next test of the same series gave Alphonso Roberts of West Indies his only appearance in test cricket. He made 28 & 0 and his only memory from this match could be that New Zealand recorded their first ever Test Victory after failing to register a win for 26 years and 45 tests.
Jack Rutherford and John Wilson of Australia made their test debut in the 2nd test of their 1956/57 series against India at Bombay and quickly disappeared into oblivion. Wilson did not get a chance to bat and Rutherford made a quick 30 in the only Innings that Australia batted. They both took one wicket a piece in India’s 2nd innings. Neither of them did take a catch.
Alistair ‘ Scotch’ Taylor opened the batting with Trevor Goddard for South Africa in the absence of Jacki McGlew in the first ever test match played at New Wanderers stadium , Johannesburg in 1956/57 series against England. He made 12 runs in 106 mts in the 1st innings and consumed and stayed at the wicket for another 48 minutes to collect just 6 runs in the South Africa’s 2nd innings total of 72. He never got another chance to play in test cricket once Jackie Mcglew returned the side in the next test.
Dick Richardson joined his brother Peter to play against West Indies at Trent Bridge in 1957 in the 3rd Test and provided only the 1st instance since 1891-92 of brother representing England in the same test. He made 33 in the only innings he came to bat whereas his brother Peter hit a century. Though Peter went to play more tests for England, for Dick it remained his only test appearance.
In the 4th test of the 1957/58 series against West Indies, SF Rehman of Pakistan made his single appearance in test cricket at Georgetown in a match Gary Sobers hit a century in each innings. Rehman made 8 & 2 and caught Everton Weeks in the 1st innings. Primarily taken as a bowler he could not deliver the goods and went wicketless in the 1st innings bowling 17 overs. In the 2nd innings he however took the wicket of Conrad Hunte whom he clean bowled in the closing moments of the match for 114 as West Indies went on to win the Test match by 8 wickets.
Keith Slater of Australia, no relation to the better known Michael Slater made his entry into and exit from the test cricket in the 3rd test of the 1958/59 Ashes at Sydney. He remained not out on 1 in the only innings he batted and took the wickets of Peter May and Ted Dexter in England’s 1st innings conceding 40 runs of 14 overs. He bowled 18 more wicketless overs in the 2nd and did not take any catches.
In the 4th test of the 1958/59 test series between India and West Indies at Madras, AK Sengupta failed with scores of 1 & 8 nd did not earn another test cap in his cricketing career whish lasted another 9 seasons. Arvind Apte, younger brother of the more successful Madhav Apte, made his debut against England at Leeds in the 3rd test of the 1959 series and could not make use of the opportunity given to him after Nari Contractor was injured seriously in the previous test. He was out for 8 & 7 while opening the batting for India in his only test appearance.
Man Mohan Sood of India provided Australian fast bowling legend Alan Davidson his only victim by way of stumping in what proved out to be his lone test match appearance. Sood was dismissed for a duck in the 1st innings of the 4th test of 1959/60 test series at Madras and could make just 3 runs in the 2nd innings before getting clean bowled by Davidson giving his wicket in more conventional way than the unusual stumping by Wally Grout of the bowling a fast bowler.
In the 1st innings of the 4th test of the famous 1960-61 series between Australia and West Indies played at Adelaide, Des Hoare of Australia came into bat immediately after Lance Gibbs took his hat-trick. Hoare made 35 runs and added 85 valuable runs with Richie Benaud for the 9th wicket. Unfortunately those runs remained his only runs in test cricket as he was out for a duck in the 2nd innings and did not appear in a test match again in spite of putting up a decent performance with the ball as well. He took the wickets of Conrad Hunte and Frank Worrell for 68 runs in the 1st innings but failed to take a wicket in the 2nd. Hoare also took a catch in each of West Indian innings.
Pakistan’s Javed Akhtar made his lone test appearance in the 3rd test of their 1962 series against England at Leeds. Akthar bowled 16 wicketless overs conceding 68 runs and made 2 runs in each of Pakistan’s innings remaining notout in the 2nd. Javed Akhtar later went on to become a Test umpire and was involved in one of the major cricket controversies of late 90s when he was alleged to have given at least 8 decisions in favor of England in a close match. England won that test beating South Africa by 23 runs. Incidentally he made those dubious decisions in the same test venue, i.e. at Leeds where he made his only test appearance 36 years back. That controversy in fact brought his test officiating career also to an abrupt end and he stood as an umpire only once after that test match.
Shahid Mahmood, who is better remembered as the 1st Pakistani to take all ten wickets in an innings of a first class match 7 years after he made his single test appearance at Trent Bridge in the 4th test of the 1962 series , did not achieve much in his only outing. He made 16 & 9 and failed to take any wickets in the only innings he bowled.
Next OTW , Colin Guest of Australia made 11 runs coming in to bat no.11 position and failed to take a single wicket in either of England’s innings in the 3rd test of the 1962/63 Ashes at Sydney. He bowled 16 overs in the 1st and 2 in the 2nd and could not even bowl a single maiden over, thus really making it a guest appearance in test cricket.
Bruce Morrison of New Zealand in the 2nd test of the 1962/63 series against England at Wellington made 10 & 0 and took 2 for 129 in the only innings that England batted. He also caught Ray Illingworth. In this test Colin Cowdrey added 163 runs for the 9th wicket with Alan Smith in an unbeaten partnership which stood as the highest for that wicket till Asif Iqbal and Intikhab Alam bettered it to 190 in 1967.
Next OTW, India’s Rajinder Pal made his debut along with one of the famed members of India’s spin quartet, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar. In his only test appearance in the 2nd test of the 1963/64 series against England at Bombay, Rajinder Pal made 3 runs in each of India’s innings and remained unbeaten in the 2nd. He opened the bowling for India in both the innings and bowled 13 wicketless overs, 11 of which were in the 1st.
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