10 cricketers who were unfortunate to never play Test cricket

The list of players who never took the field in a Test match is huge, and we have picked out the ten most unfortunate ones, who were never given chances due to various reasons.

Padmakar Shivalkar – India

The left-arm spinner was a first-class veteran, playing 124 games and picking up 589 wickets at an average of 19.69 with 42 five-fors. Shivalkar played for Bombay in a career that spanned 27 seasons (including a late call-up after seven seasons, at 47), troubling batters with his superb control and sharp turn. His talent was never in question but the India cap never came calling, as the national team relied on the services of Bishan Singh Bedi.

Bedi, a master of flight and dip, ended with 266 wickets – at that point the most by an Indian – in 67 Test matches, at an average of just under 29. While he went on to become one of India’s all-time greats, Shivalkar’s remained an unfulfilled story.

Kieron Pollard – West Indies

Pollard was not a legend in the longer formats, with 1,584 runs in 27 appearances at an average of 37.71. However, a struggling West Indies could have benefited from his experience in the middle order. He has, after all, made a name for himself as a match-winner in the shorter formats, but still had dreams to play Tests for West Indies.

In 2014, he had told ESPNCricinfo: “Think back to why I was called up in the first place to the West Indies side too. It was because I made centuries in four-day cricket. I’m not a [T20] specialist. I don’t want to let everyone know what I want to achieve. I like to tick the boxes quietly and keep myself to myself. But I’ll give you one – to play Test cricket for West Indies. My ambitions are still the same – to pull on the whites for my nation. Yes, I’ve played a lot of one-day and T20 cricket, but the ambition to play in the Test team is there.”

The dream remained just that. Pollard played his last first-class match in 2015 and never getting close to a Test call-up.

Vincent Barnes – South Africa

Playing 68 first-class matches, the fast bowler picked up 323 wickets at an average of 11.95 and could have gone on to become an all-time great, had he had been born a generation later. Playing during the apartheid era, Barnes was ineligible to play international cricket and could only turn out in the Howa Bowl, a first-class competition for non-white South African cricketers. After apartheid was dismantled, he turned out for Western Province, but was well past his best.

Speaking on how he kept himself motivated in his playing days knowing that he could never play for his country, Barnes said, “I had made peace with myself as a young man; I knew that South Africa was not a free country and that I would not be able to play for it.”

Ryan ten Doeschate – The Netherlands

Ten Doeschate played for a country whose men’s team not have Test status even today. It is a pity, for he could have gone on to become one of the greatest all-rounders of the game. From 33 ODIs, he averaged 67 with five hundreds and nine fifties, and backed that with 55 wickets at 24.12.

For Essex, he established himself in the longer format. A loyalist – he played for the club from 2003 to 2021 – he scored 9,841 runs for them in first-class cricket at an average of 40 with 21 tons. Overall, he made 11,298 runs, even playing for Otago, with his skiddy bowling and temperament making him one of the first names on the sheet for nearly two decades.

Clive Rice – South Africa

Just three ODIs when he was well past his prime could suggest a cricketer who failed to live up to his potential, but Rice’s career coincided with South Africa’s isolation, which prevented him from going on to become one of the greatest all-rounders in the game. A right-handed batter with a solid technique, he was also capable of troubling opponents with his genuine pace.

Rice made his first-class debut in 1969, a year before his team was barred from playing international cricket. That did not stop him from plying his trade in the County Championship, where he left his mark, with 26,331 runs in 482 matches at 40.95 and 930 wickets at 22.49. A shrewd captain, he could have competed with the all-rounders Ian Botham, Richard Hadlee, Kapil Dev and Imran Khan in his prime.

Rice won the Silk Cut Challenge for all-rounders in 1984, which also featured Botham, Hadlee, Kapil, and Marshall (an injury ruled out Imran).

David Hussey – Australia

His elder brother Michael got his first Test cap at 30, but fortunes were not in David’s favour, as the Baggy Green never came his way. An aggressive limited-overs batter, Hussey played for various T20 leagues around the world, but was also a consistent first-class batter, making 14,280 runs in 192 games at an average of 52.50.

In 2009/10, he topped the Sheffield Shield run-tally with 970 runs, including a 168 in the final. Curiously, instead of rewarding him, Cricket Australia stripped him of his contract within a month as they looked towards younger players. In 2010/11, Australia lost the Ashes at home for the first time in 24 years.

Mahadevan Sathasivam – Sri Lanka

Described as “the greatest batsman ever on earth” by Gary Sobers, Sathasivam played before Sri Lanka was granted Test match status, in 1982. He made his Ceylon (then Sri Lanka) debut in 1945 and became the captain three years later. He also went on to lead Singapore and Malaysia. Despite being international matches, unfortunately, none of these had Test status.

He played a total of 11 matches, scoring 753 runs with three hundreds and as many fifties, but his batting prowess is still remembered due to the praises that he received with Frank Worrell also calling him the “best batsman he had ever seen.”

Amol Muzumdar – India

The strong Indian middle-order of the late 1990s forced VVS Laxman to open batting. It had, thus, no place open for Muzumdar, arguably the finest domestic cricketer of the time. In 171 games over a career that spanned 20 years, Muzumdar notched up 11,167 runs at an average of 48.13 with 30 hundreds.

Muzumdar’s 260 remained the highest individual score on First-class debut for a long time. Unfortunately, from being hailed as the next big thing in Indian cricket, he slowly faded away.

Alan Jones – England

A consistent left-handed opener, Jones made more than 1,000 runs in every County Championship season from 1961 to his last season, in 1983. With over 36,000 first-class runs, Jones holds the record for scoring the most runs without playing a single Test match.

However, he could have been an international player if not for an unfortunate turn of events. He won a Test cap in 1970, having been selected in England’s first match against the Rest of the World XI after South Africa could not make the trip due to their government’s apartheid policies. He scored five and zero in the game that was initially given Test status.

However, it was later withdrawn after a principle was established that Tests could only be played between countries (West Indies being the exception). Jones was, thus, stripped off his Test cap. Fifty years later, the ECB reinstated it: Jones now owns England Test cap No.696.

Suzie Bates – New Zealand

A legend of the game, Bates has played 142 women’s ODIs and 131 T20Is – but not a single Test match. It is no fault of hers, with the ICC not only restricting the number of games the women play but also restricting Test cricket to a few select sides.

New Zealand last played a women’s Test match in 2004, two years before Bates’ debut. The upcoming ICC FTP does not feature a Test match for New Zealand in the next four years, which could mean Bates ends her career without a single international red-ball game.