5 Teenage debutants who went on to become top players
Test cricket is the most entertaining format of the game and requires not just skill but a lot of temperament, concentration and patience. It's tougher for adolescents to perform well in the longer format and be successful at a young age without prior first-class experience.
The game of cricket has seen some cricketers who made their debut in tests at a very young age and went on to have a noteworthy career. These players have been fortunate enough to take their talents to international cricket at a very young age.
Throughout the course of this article, we look at five teenage debutants who went on to become prominent players.
#5 Daniel Vettori
Daniel Vettori is one of the greatest bowling all-rounders of all-time. Vettori had a beautiful loop and deceived even the best of the batsmen with his flighted deliveries. He always played to his true potential even on a team that did not have enough fire-power in their bowling attack and shouldered the burden.
Vettori became the youngest New Zealand cricketer to feature in a test match when he played his debut test at the age of 18. England toured New Zealand for a 3-test series in 1997. The first test was drawn and the hosts were looking to win the second test and take the lead. In the second test at Wellington, Daniel Vettori replaced Danny Morrison and made his test debut.
After batting first, the hosts were dismissed for a mere 124 runs. Darren Gough and Andy Caddick combined for 9 wickets. Vettori who came in at number 11 remained not out on 3. In reply, England were looking good at 213-3. That is when the debutant struck to trap the set batsman, Nasser Hussain for 64 runs.
He also picked up the wicket of Andy Caddick and finished with figures of 34.3-10-98-2. New Zealand went on to lose the game by an innings and 68 runs. Vettori then went on to have an illustrious, well-decorated career and ended up picking up 362 test wickets. He also scored 4531 runs at an average of 30.01 with 6 centuries.