cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

, a one-Test wonder is usually a

cricketer Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

who is only selected for one

Test match Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (association football) ...

during his career and never represents his country again. This is not necessarily due to a poor performance and can be for numerous reasons, such as injury or strong competition from other players. The term is also used in rugby. More rarely, the term may refer to a player who has played in more than one Test, but was very successful only once. Examples include the bowlers

Narendra Hirwani Narendra Deepchand Hirwani (born 18 October 1968) is a leg spin bowler who played for India. He is mainly remembered for his success on his Test debut. Early days Hirwani came from a well-off family in Gorakhpur. He belongs to the sindhi Hindu ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and

Bob Massie Robert Arnold Lockyer Massie (born 14 April 1947) is a former Australian cricketer who played in six Test matches and three One Day Internationals (ODIs) in 1972 and 1973. A swing bowler, he had a relatively short international career but is ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, both of whom took eight wickets in each innings of their debut matches, but then failed to live up to their early promise.

Notable examples

As of July 2022, there have been 462 players who have only played one Test match. Some of the best performances by these players are: *

Andy Ganteaume Andrew Gordon Ganteaume (22 January 1921 – 17 February 2016) was a Trinidadian cricketer who played one Test match for the West Indies in 1948 as a batsman. He scored 112 in his only Test innings which left him with the highest Test battin ...

, who scored 112 for the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

in his only Test innings in 1948, and so has one of the highest Test batting averages of all time. * Rodney Redmond is the only other player to have scored a century in his only Test, scoring 107 and 56 while opening the batting for

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

in 1973. * West Indian

Vic Stollmeyer Victor Humphrey Stollmeyer (24 January 1916 – 21 September 1999) was a West Indian cricketer who played in one Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' ...

, brother of

Jeff Stollmeyer Jeffrey Baxter Stollmeyer (11 March 1921 – 10 September 1989) was a Trinidad and Tobago cricketer who played as an opening batsman. He played 32 Test matches for the West Indies, captaining 13 of these. He was also a senator. Cricket career ...

, scored 96 in his only Test in 1939. * Mick Malone took

five wickets in an innings In cricket, a five-wicket haul (also known as a "five–for" or "fifer") occurs when a bowler takes five or more wickets in a single innings. This is regarded by critics as a notable achievement, equivalent to a century from a batsman. Taki ...

and scored 46 in his only Test for Australia in 1977, leaving him with a bowling average of 12.83 and a batting average of 46, before joining

World Series Cricket World Series Cricket (WSC) was a commercial professional cricket competition staged between 1977 and 1979 which was organised by Kerry Packer and his Australian television network, Nine Network. WSC ran in commercial competition to establishe ...

. * Stuart Law scored 54 not out in his only Test innings for

in 1995, leaving him without a Test average as he was not required to bat in the second innings. *

Gobo Ashley William Hare "Gobo" Ashley (10 February 1862 – 14 July 1930) was a South African cricketer who played in one Test in 1889, the second Test ever played by his country. A left-arm medium-paced bowler, Ashley took 7 for 95 in the only Test inn ...

took 7 for 95 for

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

in the only opposition innings of his single Test in 1889. * Charles Marriott recorded match figures of 11 for 96 (5 for 37 and 6 for 59) in his only Test for

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in 1933. No other bowler has taken more than ten wickets in his only Test. * Among wicket-keepers, Indian player

Rajindernath Rajendra Nath Malhotra (8 June 1931 − 13 February 2008) was an Indian actor and comedian in Hindi and Punjabi films. Early life and family Rajendra Nath was born on 8 June 1931 in Tikamgarh, which is now in Madhya Pradesh. His family was fr ...

made four stumpings in his only Test in 1952, but was not called on to bat. Other notable occurrences of players' only Test are: *

Ed Joyce Edmund "Ed" Christopher Joyce (born 22 September 1978) is a former Irish cricketer who played for both the Ireland and England national cricket teams. After beginning his career with Middlesex, he moved to Sussex in 2009, before returning to Ir ...

played in Ireland's first Test match in May 2018, and announced his retirement from all cricket one week later. * Andy Lloyd scored 10 runs (not out) for

in his only Test against the

, in June 1984, before being struck on the head, by a short-pitched delivery from

Malcolm Marshall Malcolm Denzil Marshall (18 April 1958 – 4 November 1999) was a Barbadian cricketer. Primarily a fast bowler, Marshall is widely regarded as one of the greatest and one of the most accomplished fast bowlers of the modern era in Test cricket. ...

. Although subsequently recovering from the injury, he never played for his national team again. * Darren Pattinson is an unusual one-Test wonder in that he played a single Test for England, while his brother

James Pattinson James Lee Pattinson (born 3 May 1990) is an Australian cricketer. Pattinson is considered an aggressive fast bowler. After making his Test cricket debut in late 2011, he played Test and limited overs cricket for the Australia national cricket ...

had a more successful Test career with Australia. *

Khalid Hasan Khalid Hasan (15 April 1934 – 5 February 2009) was a Pakistani journalist and writer. Author and editor of several books, in addition to being a regular columnist for a number of English-language Pakistani newspapers, he is best known for his ...

played for Pakistan in 1954, and at the age of 16 years 352 days, he is the youngest cricketer to play in just one Test. Instances of one-Test wonders are reasonably common: about one in eight Test cricketers are picked only once for their country. Occasionally, one-Test wonders have been recalled to Test cricket after a gap of several years. One example was

Ryan Sidebottom Ryan Jay Sidebottom (born 15 January 1978) is a former England international cricketer who played domestic cricket for Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire and retired in 2017 after taking more than 1,000 career wickets. He is the only player in the ...

, who was recalled for his second Test in 2007 after his debut in 2001. Coincidentally his father,

Arnie Sidebottom Arnold "Arnie" Sidebottom (born 1 April 1954) is an English former footballer and cricketer, who played cricket for Yorkshire and played one Test match for England. Football Sidebottom was born in Shawlands, Barnsley, Yorkshire, and started o ...

, was a one-Test wonder. As of May 2007, fourteen one-Test wonders have also played in a single

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...

for their team.One-match wonders, and Shah's second chance

Cricinfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a d ...

, 16 May 2007

References

{{Reflist

External links

Ultimate One-Test wonder

, 31 December 2005 Test cricket * “One Test Wonders” podcast series with Brian Murgatroyd. Interviews with several of those lucky enough to gain a Test cap: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/one-test-wonders/id1577581465