Instances of two wicketkeepers making their debut in the same match

Naman Ojha and Kusal Perera (not in picture) made debut in the third Test between Sri Lanka and India

In the third Test between India and Sri Lanka played at Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC) in Colombo both the teams bring in players who are making their debut in Tests and they are the wicketkeepers as well. For Sri Lanka, as Kumar Sangakkara has retired after the second Test, he is replaced by Kusal Perera. They do have their wicketkeeper-batsman who kept wickets in the first two Tests (Dinesh Chandimal) but Kusal Perera is playing as a wicketkeeper and Chandimal as a non-wicketkeeper.

For India, due to Wriddhiman Saha’s injury they called up Naman Ojha for the replacement. Thus, Naman Ojha is making his Test debut as a wicketkeeper. So for both teams the wicketkeepers are making their Test debut in the same match. The last such occasion was way back in 2000 in Bangladesh’s debut Test match against India at Dhaka. Khaled Mashud, the wicketkeeper, and all the Bangladeshi players made their Test debut as it was Bangladesh’s first ever Test match. For India, Saba Karim, the wicketkeeper, made his Test debut.

Overall, it is the 14th instances of two wicketkeepers making their Test debut in the same match. The first was obviously the first ever test match where everyone was making his debut - Australia vs England at Melbourne Cricket Ground on March 15, 1877. And there are instances where one of the teams was making its Test debut and a wicketkeeper from the other team, just like the Bangladesh vs India mentioned above.

The table below lists the instances of wicketkeepers from both the sides making their debut in the same match in Tests, ODIs and T20Is.

Two wicketkeepers making their test debut in the same match

Wicketkeeper 1	Wicketkeeper 2	Teams	Venue	Season
Jack Blackham	Jack Selby	Australia v England	Melbourne	1876/77
Dick Lilley	James Kelly	England v Australia	Lord's	1896
Murray Bisset	Jack Board	South Africa v England	Johannesburg	1898/99
Sammy Carter	Dick Young	Australia v England	Sydney	1907/08
Tom Campbell	Bert Strudwick	South Africa v England	Johannesburg	1909/10
Barlow Carkeek	Tommy Ward	Australia v South Africa	Manchester	1912
Jock Cameron	Rony Stanyforth	South Africa v England	Johannesburg	1927/28
Harry Smith	Karl Nunes	England v West Indies	Lord's	1928
Ken James	Tich Cornford	New Zealand v England	Christchurch	1929/30
Dilawar Hussain	Hopper Levett	India v England	Kolkata	1933/34
Nana Joshi	Dick Spooner	India v England	Delhi	1951/52
Dave Williams	Dave Richardson	West Indies v South Africa	Bridgetown	1992
Khaled Mashud	Saba Karim	Bangladesh v India	Dhaka	2000/01
Kusal Perera	Naman Ojha	Sri Lanka v India	Colombo SSC	2015

• As mentioned earlier, the first instance was in the first ever test match played.
• It was the debut Test for West Indies (1928), New Zealand (1930) and Bangladesh (2000) and the wicketkeeper from opposition team also made his debut.
• The most successful wicketkeeper among the names in the above table is Dave Richardson with 152 wicketkeeping dismissals in his 42 tests spanning from 1992 to 1998. He made his Test debut in South Africa’s first Test after readmission to International cricket where ten cricketers involving Richardson were playing their first Test match.
• Sammy Carter scored 61 in his debut Test as wicketkeeper whereas Dilawar Hussain scored 59 & 57 in his debut Test. These are the only two to score 50+ on their debut amongst the above names.

Now let’s see the similar list for ODIs and T20Is.

Two wicketkeepers making their ODI debut in the same match

Wicketkeeper 1	Wicketkeeper 2	Teams	Venue	Season
Rod Marsh	Alan Knott	Australia v England	Melbourne	1970/71
Ken Wadsworth	Wasim Bari	New Zealand v Pakistan	Christchurch	1972/73
Bob Taylor	Deryck Murray	England v West Indies	Leeds	1973
John Maclean	Roger Tolchard	Australia v England	Sydney	1978/79
Mark Burgess	Sunil Jayasinghe	New Zealand v Sri Lanka	Nottingham	1979
Taslim Arif	Clive Lloyd	Pakistan v West Indies	Karachi	1980/81
Nayan Mongia	Nisal Fernando	India v Sri Lanka	Rajkot	1993/94
Craig Wallace	Darren Ramasammy	Scotland v Canada	Ayr	2012

• The first instance was as known the first ever ODI match.
• The second was also the match where both teams were making their ODI debut.
• Darren Ramsammy was making his List-A debut as well.

Two wicketkeepers making their T20I debut in the same match

Wicketkeeper 1	Wicketkeeper 2	Teams	Venue	Season
Brendon McCullum	Adam Gilchrist	New Zealand v Australia	Auckland	2004/05
Chris Read	Kamran Akmal	England v Pakistan	Bristol	2006
Mushfiqur Rahim	Brendan Taylor	Bangladesh v Zimbabwe	Khulna	2006/07
Rustam Bhatti	Wesley Barresi	Canada v Netherlands	Dubai DSC	2011/12
Jamie Atkinson	Subash Khakurel	Hong Kong v Nepal	Chittagong	2013/14

• It was the first match for both teams in three of the five occasions listed above – The first, third and the fifth.
• In the second instance, Pakistan was making its T20I debut.