Test cricket started 146 years ago, know which players dominated its 25 years

Test Cricket 19th Century History: About 146 years ago, the first Test match was played between Australia and England in Melbourne. This was the first international test match in cricket history. In this match played in March 1877, Australia won by 45 runs in a thrilling manner. For the next 12 years, many Test matches were played between Australia and England in this way. In those days, these were the two teams that used to play cricket at the international level. Then in 1889, South Africa also joined this list.

If we look at the history of Test cricket, a total of 69 Test matches were played in the first 25 years. England was involved in all these matches. He played 61 matches against Australia and 8 matches against South Africa. England was dominating here. The English team won 35 matches, while Australia had 24 wins. At the same time, South Africa had to lose all their 8 matches of this round.

It is natural that when only two teams were playing most of the matches in the initial 25 years of Test cricket history, then the players of these two teams would also dominate. Know here, which players dominated in batting and bowling in that period…

Australia’s Sid Gregory was on top in scoring runs
In the first 25 years of cricket history, there were 9 batsmen who scored more than a thousand runs. These included 5 players from Australia and four players from England. Sid Gregory of Australia was the highest run-scorer during this period. He scored 1365 runs in 52 innings of 29 matches. During this, he also scored three centuries and five half-centuries. His batting average was 28.43 and the highest score was 201. He was the only batsman in the first 25 years of cricket to score a double century.

These batsmen also scored a lot of runs
Apart from Gregory, Archie McLaren of England (1345 runs), Clem Hill of Australia (1304), Joseph Darling of Australia (1293), Tom Hayward of England (1281), Arthur Shrubbery of England (1277), George Giffen of Australia (1238) ), Australia’s Alec Bannerman (1108) and England’s WG Grace (1098) are included in the list of top-9 batsmen of the first 25 years.

English spinner Johnny Briggs took the most wickets
In the first 25 years of cricket history, there were only 5 bowlers who took more than 100 wickets. These included three bowlers from England and two from Australia. The most wickets of this era are recorded in the name of spinner Johnny Briggs. He took 118 wickets in 49 innings of 33 matches at a bowling average of 17.75.

Fast bowler Lohman wreaked havoc
Along with Johnny, his fellow England players George Lohman (112) and Bobby Pill (101) are included in the list of top-5 bowlers of that era. At the same time, the names of George Giffen (103) and Charlie Turner (101) are among the bowlers who took 100 wickets from Australia. Here the fast bowler George Lohmann took 100+ wickets at an amazing bowling average of just 10.75.

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