5 England cricketers who scored a century on their captaincy debut

#5 Archie MacLaren

A rare pic of MacLaren with the England team (second from front)

When Archie MacLaren passed away in 1944, The Times wrote in his obituary that he was “one of the outstanding opening batsmen of all time.” He played 35 Test matches and captained England in 22 of those between 1897 and 1909. Out of those 22, England won only 4 Tests under his captaincy.

His very first assignment as the skipper was the first Ashes Test of 1897-98 at the Sydney Cricket Ground. MacLaren scored a century in the first innings and an unbeaten half-century in the second as England won by nine wickets. In his career which spanned across 1894-1909, the batsman scored 1,931 Test runs which included five centuries.