Australia’s youngest Test cricket debutants, featuring icons, cult heroes and one-hit wonders
Australia goes into this summer with an ageing Test line-up and questions over its hesitancy to pick young players. Some of Australia’s greatest cricketers made their Test debuts by age 20, along with some cult heroes and one-hit wonders. Here is the remarkable honour roll.
Australia is wrestling with an ageing Test line-up as a summer against Pakistan and West Indies looms, prompting fresh questions about a reluctance to select young players.
Of the first Test squad, Pat Cummins, David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith, Mitchel Marsh, Alex Carey, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood and Scott Boland are aged 30 or above, while Marnus Labuschagne and Travis Head are 29. Cameron Green and Lance Morris, neither certain selections, are 24 and 25 respectively.
Champion Australian batter Greg Chappell recently told CODE Sports that hesitancy to pick young players was a problem that could become painfully apparent once the current crop began to retire, with Warner’s exit pencilled in for the SCG Test. India, the cricket colossus which shapes as the greatest threat to Aussie supremacy, has no such qualms about picking youth from its vast talent pool.
While selection has become increasingly conservative, with Green the youngest recent debutant (at age 21 in 2020), Australia has blooded some of its greatest cricketers at a tender age, including Sir Donald Bradman, Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting.
Below is the list of Australian players to have made their Test debut by age 20, plus how they fared in their first match and beyond.
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Ian Craig: 17 years, 239 days- Australia v South Africa, MCG 1953. Stats/result: 53, 47 runs; lost by six wickets. Total Tests: 11.
Pat Cummins: 18 years, 193 days – South Africa v Australia, Wanderers 2011. Stats/result: 1-38, 6-79, 2, 13*; won by two wickets: Total Tests: 55*.
Tom Garrett: 18 years, 232 days – Australia v England, MCG 1877. Stats/result: 2-22, 0-9, 18*, 0; won by 45 runs. Total Tests: 19.
Clem Hill: 19 years, 96 days – England v Australia, Lord’s 1896. Stats/result: 1, 5 runs; England won by six wickets. Total Tests: 49.
Gerry Hazlitt: 19 years, 100 days – Australia v England, SCG 1907. Stats/result: 0-32, 0-24, 18*, 34*; won by two wickets. Total Tests: 9.
Ron Archer: 19 years, 104 days – Australia v South Africa, MCG 1953. Stats/result: 1-97, 0-23, 18, 0; lost by six wickets. Total Tests: 19.
Neil Harvey: 19 years, 107 days – Australia v India, Adelaide Oval 1948. Stats/result: 13; won by an innings and 16 runs. Total Tests: 79.
Archie Jackson: 19 years, 149 days – Australia v England, Adelaide Oval 1929. Stats/result: 164, 36; lost by 12 runs. Total Tests: 8.
John Cottam: 19 years, 173 days – Australia v England, Association Ground, Sydney 1887. Stats/result: 1, 3. Total Tests: 1.
JJ Ferris: 19 years, 252 days – Australia v England, Association Ground, Sydney 1887. Stats/result: 4-27, 5-76, 1, 0*; lost by 13 runs. Total Tests: 9.
Craig McDermott: 19 years, 252 days – Australia v West Indies, MCG 1984. Stats/result: 3-118, 3-65, 0; draw. Total Tests: 71.
Ashton Agar: 19 years, 269 days – England v Australia, Trent Bridge 2013. Stats/result: 0-24, 2-82, 98, 14; lost by 14 runs. Total Tests: 5*.
Stan McCabe: 19 years, 332 days – England v Australia, Trent Bridge 1930. Stats/result: 4, 49, 1-23, 1-42; lost by 93 runs. Total Tests: 39.
Doug Walters: 19 years, 354 days – Australia v England, Gabba 1965. Stats/result: 155, 1-25, 1-22; draw. Total Tests: 74.
Graham McKenzie: 19 years, 363 days – England v Australia, Lord’s 1961. Stats/result: 1-81, 5-37, 34; won by five wickets. Total Tests: 60.
Les Joslin: 20 years, 44 days – Australia v India, SCG 1968. Stats/result: 7, 2; won by 144 runs. Total Tests: 1.
Graeme Hole: 20 years, 48 days – Australia v England, MCG 1951. Stats/result: 18, 63, 1-10, 0-3. Total Tests: 18.
Albert ‘Tibby’ Cotter: 20 years, 85 days – Australia v England, SCG 1904. Stats/result: 0-44, 3-41, 0, 34; lost by 157 runs. Total Tests: 21.
Phillip Hughes: 20 years, 88 days – South Africa v Australia, Wanderers 2009. Stats/result: 0, 75; won by 162 runs. Total Tests: 26.
Don Bradman: 20 years, 95 days – Australia v England, Exhibition Ground, Brisbane 1928. Stats/result: 18, 1; lost by 675 runs. Total Tests: 52.
Syd Gregory: 20 years, 98 days – England v Australia, Lord’s 1890. Stats/result: 0, 9; lost by seven wickets. Total Tests: 58.
Ernie Bromley: 20 years, 161 days – Australia v England, Gabba 1933. Stats/result: 26, 7, 0-19; lost by six wickets. Total Tests: 2.
Ian Davis: 20 years, 187 days – Australia v New Zealand, MCG 1974. Stats/result: 15; won by an innings and 25 runs. Total Tests: 15.
Sammy Jones: 20 years, 200 days – Australia v England, Association Ground, Sydney 1882. Stats/result: 37, 13*, 1-19; won by five wickets. Total Tests: 12.
Steve Waugh: 20 years, 207 days – Australia v India, MCG 1985. Stats/result: 13, 5, 2-36; draw. Total Tests: 168.
Gordon Rorke: 20 years, 217 days – Australia v England, Adelaide Oval 1959. Stats/result: 3-23, 2-78, 2*; won by 10 wickets. Total Tests: 4.
William Bruce: 20 years, 224 days – Australia v England, MCG 1885. Stats/result: 3-88, 0-4, 3*, 45; lost by 10 wickets. Total Tests: 14.
Jim Burke: 20 years, 235 days – Australia v England, Adelaide Oval 1951. Stats/result: 12, 101*, 0-7; won by 274 runs. Total Tests: 24.
Matt Renshaw: 20 years, 241 days – Australia v South Africa, Adelaide Oval 2016. Stats/result: 10, 34*; won by seven wickets. Total Tests: 14*.
Rick Darling: 20 years, 272 days – Australia v India, Adelaide Oval 1978. Stats/result: 65, 56; won by 47 runs. Total Tests: 14.
Roland Pope: 20 years, 318 days – Australia v England, MCG 1885. Stats/result: 0,3; lost by 10 wickets. Total Tests: 1.
Ross Gregory: 20 years, 336 days – Australia v England, Adelaide Oval 1937. Stats/result: 23, 50, 0-14; won by 148 runs. Total Tests: 2.
Ricky Ponting: 20 years, 354 days – Australia v Sri Lanka, WACA 1995. Stats/result: 96 runs; won by an innings and 36 runs. Total Tests: 168.
Recent Australian Test debuts
Aaron Finch: Australia v Pakistan, Dubai 2018, age 31
Travis Head: Australia v Pakistan, Dubai 2018, age 24
Marnus Labuschagne: Australia v Pakistan, Dubai 2018, age 24
Marcus Harris: Australia v India, Adelaide Oval 2018, age 26
Kurtis Patterson: Australia v Sri Lanka, Gabba 2019, age 25
Jhye Richardson: Australia v Sri Lanka, Gabba 2019, age 22
Cameron Green: Australia v India, Adelaide Oval 2020, age 21
Will Pucovski: Australia v India, SCG 2021, age 22
Alex Carey: Australia v England, Gabba 2021, age 30
Michael Neser: Australia v England, Adelaide Oval 2021, age 31
Scott Boland: Australia v England, MCG 2021, age 32
Mitchell Swepson: Australia v Pakistan, Karachi 2022, age 28
Todd Murphy: Australia v India, Nagpur 2023, age 22
Matthew Kuhnemann: Australia v India, Delhi 2023, age 26
Youngest Test debutants in history
Hasan Raza: 14 years, 227 days - Pakistan v Zimbabwe, Faisalabad 1996
Mushtaq Mohammad: 15 years, 124 days - Pakistan v West Indies, Lahore 1959
Mohammad Sharif: 15 years, 128 days - Bangladesh v Zimbabwe, Bulawayo 2001
Aaqib Javed: 16 years, 189 days - Pakistan v New Zealand, Wellington 1989
Sachin Tendulkar: 16 years, 205 days - India v Pakistan, Karachi 1989
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