At Adelaide, Mitchell Starc became the second bowler in history to take a wicket with the first ball of three separate men’s Test matches.
The Adelaide Test match began in dramatic fashion after Rohit Sharma won the toss and opted to bat, as Starc trapped Yashasvi Jaiswal leg-before. Starc had struck with the first ball twice before – against Sri Lanka at Galle in 2016 and against England at Brisbane in 2021-22, dismissing Dimuth Karunaratne and Rory Burns. In fact, the Burns wicket was the last incident of a wicket falling off the first ball of a Test.
Starc is now one of two bowlers to take a wicket with the first ball of three Test matches. Pedro Collins had also done this, at Dhaka in 2003-04, and at Gros Islet and Kingston in 2004. All his wickets were against Bangladesh, and Hannan Sarkar was the batter on each occasion.
Other than Collins and Starc, four others have struck with the first ball of two Tests – Richard Hadlee, Geoff Arnold, Kapil Dev, and Suranga Lakmal.
Wicket with the first ball in a men’s Test match
Bowler | Team | Batter | Team | Venue | Season |
| Arthur Conningham | Australia | Archie MacLaren | England | Melbourne | 1894-95 |
| Bert Vogler | South Africa | Tom Hayward | England | The Oval | 1907 |
| Maurice Tate | England | Warren Bardsley | Australia | Leeds | 1926 |
| Ted Badcock | New Zealand | Herbert Sutcliffe | England | Christchurch | 1932-33 |
| Ernie McCormick | Australia | Stan Worthington | England | Brisbane | 1936-37 |
| Fazal Mahmood | Pakistan | Conrad Hunte | West Indies | Port of Spain | 1957-58 |
| Graham McKenzie | Australia | Eddie Barlow | South Africa | Durban | 1966-67 |
| Abid Ali | India | Roy Fredericks | West Indies | Port of Spain | 1970-71 |
| Richard Hadlee | New Zealand | Keith Stackpole | Australia | Auckland | 1973-74 |
| Geoff Arnold | England | Sunil Gavaskar | India | Birmingham | 1974 |
| Andy Roberts | West Indies | Sudhir Naik | India | Calcutta/Kolkata | 1974-75 |
| Geoff Arnold | England | John Morrison | New Zealand | Christchurch | 1974-75 |
| Kapil Dev | India | Mohsin Khan | Pakistan | Jullundur | 1983-84 |
| Malcolm Marshall | West Indies | Sunil Gavaskar | India | Calcutta/Kolkata | 1983-84 |
| Imran Khan | Pakistan | Sunil Gavaskar | India | Jaipur | 1986-87 |
| Richard Hadlee | New Zealand | WV Raman | India | Napier | 1989-90 |
| Kapil Dev | India | Jimmy Cook | South Africa | Durban | 1992-93 |
| Curtly Ambrose | West Indies | Gary Kirsten | South Africa | Cape Town | 1998-99 |
| Glenn McGrath | Australia | Sanath Jayasuriya | Sri Lanka | Galle | 1999 |
| Allan Donald | South Africa | Leon Garrick | West Indies | Kingston | 2000-01 |
| Mervyn Dillon | West Indies | SS Das | India | Bridgetown | 2001-02 |
| Pedro Collins | West Indies | Hannan Sarkar | Bangladesh | Dhaka | 2002-03 |
| Pedro Collins | West Indies | Hannan Sarkar | Bangladesh | Gros Islet | 2004 |
| Pedro Collins | West Indies | Hannan Sarkar | Bangladesh | Kingston | 2004 |
| Mashrafe Mortaza | Bangladesh | Wasim Jaffer | India | Chittagong | 2007 |
| Ryan Sidebottom | England | Daren Ganga | West Indies | Chester-le-Street | 2007 |
| Mohammad Amir | Pakistan | Tim McIntosh | New Zealand | Dunedin | 2009-10 |
| Dale Steyn | South Africa | Andrew Strauss | England | Johannesburg | 2009-10 |
| Suranga Lakmal | Sri Lanka | Chris Gayle | West Indies | Pallekele | 2010-11 |
| Mitchell Starc | Australia | Dimuth Karunaratne | Sri Lanka | Galle | 2016 |
| Suranga Lakmal | Sri Lanka | KL Rahul | India | Calcutta/Kolkata | 2017-18 |
| James Anderson | England | Dean Elgar | South Africa | Centurion | 2019-20 |
| Blessing Muzarabani | Zimbabwe | Abdul Malik | Afghanistan | Abu Dhabi | 2020-21 |
| Mitchell Starc | Australia | Rory Burns | England | Brisbane | 2021-22 |
| Mitchell Starc | Australia | Yashasvi Jaiswal | India | Adelaide | 2024-25 |
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