During the 3rd Test of the 2020-21 Border-Gavaskar Trophy, at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Will Pucovski became the 460th Test debutant for Australia in almost 134 years of Test cricket. He made the most of two dropped chances by Rishabh Pant and a potentially missed run out when Jasprit Bumrah could not recover from a slide in time to score a brisk 62. Rishabh Pant trolled for dropping Will Pucovski twice
Pucovski was considered a Test star almost immediately after he scored that 243 in his first season. This was the eighth double-hundred in the Sheffield Shield by anyone of age 21 or less. Since then, he had to battle mental health problems and nine instances of concussion, but he recovered every time. Will Pucovski's concussion history
Before the Test, his career tally stood at six hundreds from 23 First-Class matches, including 255 not out and 202 in consecutive innings in the Sheffield Shield earlier this season. Before the Test match, his First-Class average stood at an impressive 54.50. Will
At the same time, Pucovski made a curious "record" by playing a Test match before appearing in the Big Bash League (BBL). Since the first ever BBL match, on December 16, 2011, he is only the fifth Australian cricketer to have done this.
Player | Test debut | BBL debut | Difference (days) |
John Hastings | 30.11.2012. | 27.12.2012. | 27 |
Ashton Agar | 10.7.2013. | 22.12.2013. | 165 |
Matt Renshaw | 24.11.2016. | 27.1.2018. | 429 |
Chadd Sayers | 30.3.2018. | Not yet | N/A |
Will Pucovski | 7.1.2021. | Not yet | N/A |
While John Hastings and Ashton Agar made their two debuts in the same year, Matt Renshaw had to wait for over a year after his first Test to play in the Big Bash League. As for Chadd Sayers, the wait is almost three years now – and counting.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 07, 2021 06:41 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).