Stats: Most number of Tests without a wicket
England captain Alastair Cook became the first man in Test history to bag his first wicket after playing more than hundred matches. In the first Test match of the series against India, as the match was heading towards a sure stalemate, India didn’t declare their innings and forced England to stay on the pitch for the full day. As the next Test of the 5 match series starts in three days time, the home side’s captain, fearing fatigue, rested his frontline bowlers and bowled his part-timers at Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ishant Sharma.
After a while, Cook himself decided to have a bowl and in his second over, he claimed Ishant Sharma caught behind in his 105th appearance.
Below is the list of players who have played in the most number of matches without a single Test wicket.
Normally, you would expect the list to be full of wicket-keepers, but only three out of 14 are stumpers. Former England star Alec Stewart heads the list followed by the West Indian batting great Brian Lara. Interestingly, not one player from South Africa is part of this list.
| Player | Matches |
|---|---|
| Alec Stewart (Eng) | 133 |
| Brian Lara (WI) | 131 |
| Kumar Sangakkara (SL) | 124 |
| Inzamam-ul-Haq (Pak) | 120 |
| Ian Healy (Aus) | 119 |
| Dilip Vengsarkar (Ind) | 116 |
| Mark Cowdrey (Eng) | 114 |
| Stephen Fleming (NZ) | 111 |
| Gordon Greenidge (WI) | 108 |
| David Boon (Aus) | 107 |
| Justin Langer (Aus) | 105 |
| Matthew Hayden (Aus) | 103 |
| Andrew Strauss (Eng) | 100 |
| Graham Thorpe (Eng) | 100 |
*Stats updated on July 14, 2014
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