West Indies spinner Gudakesh Motie entered the record books when he opened the bowling on day one of the first Test against Pakistan in Multan today (January 17).
The start of the first Test was delayed due to fog after which Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat first. Both the hosts and the visitors named one debutant each in their XIs - Pakistan playing Mohammad Huraira in place of the injured Saim Ayub and West Indies playing wicketkeeper Tevin Imlach, replacing vice-captain Joshua da Silva.
The construction of Pakistan's bowling attack, comprising only one seam bowling option and four spinners was enough of a giveaway for the kind of surface to expect in Multan. West Indies went in with three spin-bowling options as well, and started with one of them, Motie.
A first in West Indies' Test cricket history
When Motie sent down the first ball of the Test match to Pakistan captain Shan Masood, he became the first-ever spinner from West Indies to open the bowling in the very first innings of a Test. The last spinner from any country to do so was Sajid Khan against England in Rawalpindi nearly three months back.
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In fact, so rich has been the history of West Indies' fast bowling, that there had only ever been four instances of a spinner from the Caribbean bowling the first over of a Test innings. Three of those four instances came in 2021, while the first one was in 1950. None of them came in the first or second innings, before today.
West Indian spinners to open the bowling in a Test innings
| Player | Innings | Opposition | Ground | Start Date |
| Gudakesh Motie | 1 | v Pakistan | Multan | 17 Jan 2025 |
| Veerasammy Permaul | 3 | v Sri Lanka | Galle | 29 Nov 2021 |
| Rahkeem Cornwall | 3 | v Sri Lanka | Galle | 21 Nov 2021 |
| Rahkeem Cornwall | 4 | v Bangladesh | Mirpur | 11 Feb 2021 |
| Sonny Ramadhin | 3 | v England | The Oval | 12 Aug 1950 |
First non-Asian spinner in 113 years to open the bowling in a Test
Overall, this was only the 30th instance of a spinner opening the bowling in the first innings of a Test match. The previous nine instances were all by Asian bowlers - three from Bangladesh, four from India, and two from Pakistan.
The last non-Asian spinner to bowl the first ball of a Test match was South Africa's Aubrey Faulkner in 1912. In fact, with no Asian team having played Test cricket by then, each of the 19 such instances leading up to Faulkner's in 1912 were involving non-Asian teams.
Spinners to bowl the first ball of a Test match
| Player | Overs | Maidens | Runs | Wkts | Opposition | Ground | Start Date |
| Joey Palmer (AUS) | 36 (4) | 9 | 73 | 1 | v England | Melbourne | 31 Dec 1881 |
| Joey Palmer (AUS) | 58 (4) | 36 | 68 | 7 | v England | Sydney | 17 Feb 1882 |
| Joey Palmer (AUS) | 45.2 (4) | 23 | 46 | 5 | v England | Sydney | 3 Mar 1882 |
| Ted Peate (ENG) | 38 (4) | 24 | 31 | 4 | v Australia | The Oval | 28 Aug 1882 |
| Joey Palmer (AUS) | 24 (4) | 9 | 52 | 2 | v England | Sydney | 17 Feb 1883 |
| Ted Peate (ENG) | 40 (4) | 14 | 85 | 6 | v Australia | Lord's | 21 Jul 1884 |
| Ted Peate (ENG) | 63 (4) | 25 | 99 | 2 | v Australia | The Oval | 11 Aug 1884 |
| Bobby Peel (ENG) | 41 (4) | 15 | 68 | 3 | v Australia | Adelaide | 12 Dec 1884 |
| Bobby Peel (ENG) | 32 (4) | 13 | 51 | 0 | v Australia | Sydney | 20 Feb 1885 |
| Bobby Peel (ENG) | 41 (4) | 26 | 28 | 3 | v Australia | Melbourne | 21 Mar 1885 |
| Ted Peate (ENG) | 19 (4) | 7 | 30 | 0 | v Australia | Manchester | 5 Jul 1886 |
| Johnny Briggs (ENG) | 37 (4) | 21 | 39 | 4 | v South Africa | Gqeberha | 12 Mar 1889 |
| Bobby Peel (ENG) | 24 | 5 | 74 | 3 | v Australia | Sydney | 1 Feb 1895 |
| George Rowe (SA) | 49 (5) | 9 | 115 | 5 | v England | Johannesburg | 2 Mar 1896 |
| Wilfred Rhodes (ENG) | 35.2 (5) | 13 | 58 | 4 | v Australia | Nottingham | 1 Jun 1899 |
| Hugh Trumble (AUS) | 65 | 23 | 124 | 3 | v England | Adelaide | 17 Jan 1902 |
| Wilfred Rhodes (ENG) | 25 | 3 | 104 | 4 | v Australia | Manchester | 24 Jul 1902 |
| Hugh Trumble (AUS) | 50 | 10 | 107 | 4 | v England | Melbourne | 1 Jan 1904 |
| Douglas Carr (ENG) | 34 | 2 | 146 | 5 | v Australia | The Oval | 9 Aug 1909 |
| Aubrey Faulkner (SA) | 16 | 2 | 55 | 0 | v Australia | Manchester | 27 May 1912 |
| Polly Umrigar (IND) | 14 | 4 | 23 | 0 | v Pakistan | Lahore | 29 Jan 1955 |
| ML Jaisimha (IND) | 19 | 4 | 54 | 2 | v England | Kanpur | 15 Feb 1964 |
| ML Jaisimha (IND) | 4 | 0 | 13 | 0 | v New Zealand | Hyderabad (Deccan) | 15 Oct 1969 |
| Mohammad Hafeez (PAK) | 3 | 1 | 9 | 0 | v Bangladesh | Chattogram | 9 Dec 2011 |
| Pragyan Ojha (IND) | 28.1 | 10 | 99 | 5 | v New Zealand | Bengaluru | 31 Aug 2012 |
| Sohag Gazi (BAN) | 47 | 7 | 145 | 3 | v West Indies | Mirpur | 13 Nov 2012 |
| Mehidy Hasan Miraz (BAN) | 13 | 0 | 54 | 0 | v Sri Lanka | Mirpur | 8 Feb 2018 |
| Taijul Islam (BAN) | 41 | 5 | 116 | 4 | v Afghanistan | Chattogram | 5 Sep 2019 |
| Sajid Khan (PAK) | 29.2 | 4 | 128 | 6 | v England | Rawalpindi | 24 Oct 2024 |
| Gudakesh Motie (WI) | 12.1 | 1 | 34 | 1 | v Pakistan | Multan | 17 Jan 2025 |
- The numbers in the brackets in the overs column represent the number of balls per over. Entries with no brackets next to them had six balls per over as is the norm today.
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