Top ten debut knocks in Test matches

7. Kepler Wessels (Australia – 162 & 46 vs England, Brisbane, Nov 1982)

The South Africa-born left-handed opening batsman made a sensational start to his international career when he was chosen to make his debut against England at the Gabba in November 1982.

Wessels hammered 162 in his debut innings, thus becoming the thirteenth Australian to score a hundred in his maiden Test. His knock came against the likes of Bob Willis and Ian Botham, and he made a chanceless 46 in the second innings, helping his side achieve victory by seven wickets. The match was also memorable for Geoff Lawson’s ten-wicket haul and Jeff Thomson’s five-for in England’s second innings.

Wessels would go on to captain the country of his birth in the 1992 World Cup, following the lifting of the ban by the ICC after the end of the apartheid regime in South Africa. He pulled off an upset when his team beat the Australians for the first time at Sydney.