Shane Warne's debut in International Cricket
Named as one of Wisden’s 5 Cricketers of the Century, Shane Warne revolutionzed the art of leg-spin bowling from 1992 onwards. A master of his craft, he reached the coveted milestone of 700 Test wickets in the 4th Ashes Test of 2006-07, and finished his career with a final tally of 708 Test wickets from 145 Test matches, the second highest in the history of Test cricket, behind only Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan.
Warne played his first Test match for Australia at the Syndey Cricket Ground against India in the New Year’s Test of 1992. However, his first outing in Australian colours wasn’t particularly memorable as the Indian batsmen, in particular Ravi Shastri and Sachin Tendulkar, took the attack to the young leg-spinner.
Warne finally dismissed Shastri for 206, but not before the Indian team had raced to a total of 397, in response to Australia’s 313 in their first innings. Warne also made a 67-ball 20 and 1* respectively in the two innings of the drawn Test match. India went down 0-4 in the five match Test series down under but it would be the first of many battles the leg-spinner would have with the Indian cricket team and in particular with master batsman Sachin Tendulkar in the years ahead.
The following year, Warne made it to the Australian One Day International (ODI) team and played his first match at the Basin Reserve in Wellington against New Zealand. Thanks to Martin Crowe’s unbeaten 91 and medium-pacer Gavin Larsen’s miserly spell of 3-17, Australia fell short of New Zealand’s total by a huge margin of 88 runs. Warne, who was picked for the game as the specialist spinner in the Australian side, ended with an economy rate of 4.00 from his ten overs and picked up the wickets of Kiwi batsmen Andrew Jones and Jeff Wilson on his ODI debut.
In June 1993, Warne delivered what is arguably the single most famous delivery in the history of Test match cricket. With his first ever ball in Ashes cricket, Warne took a few steps from his bowling mark, and spun a ball across the face of England batsman Mike Gatting. The ball spun so much that Gatting, who was looking to play the delivery on the leg side at first, ended up losing the top of his off-stump. It was a classic leg-spinners’ delivery and the stage at which it was delivered led it to be labelled the ‘Ball of the Century’.
Warne’s cricketing career has been glittered with towering successes and seen some abysmal lows too. A day before the 2003 World Cup, Warne was sent home for having tested positive with a banned substance. Four years earlier, Warne was instrumental in Australia’s come-from-behind victory at the 1999 World Cup in England, while in the 2005 Ashes series in England, Warne put in a lion-hearted effort to pick up 40 wickets from 5 test matches. A performer who gave nothing short of 100% for his team on the field, Warne will always be remembered as one of cricket’s best spin bowlers, if not it’s greatest bowler. In January 2007, Shane Warne played the last of his 145 Test matches, and bid adieu to cricket as Australia regained the Ashes with a perfect 5-0 whitewash over England.