Pakistan's first-ball Test dismissals: Azan Awais joins rare list after Headingley dismissal in ENG vs PAK 2026

Pakistan's first-ball Test dismissals: Azan Awais joins rare list after Headingley dismissal in ENG vs PAK 2026 originally appeared on Cricket News. Add Cricket News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

Azan Awais became the second Pakistan batter ever dismissed off the opening ball of a Test match.

Ollie Robinson trapped him LBW at Headingley, with a review confirming the ball was crashing into the stumps.

The dismissal joins a rare list of 35 instances worldwide, with India's Sunil Gavaskar suffering it three times.

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First-ball test dismissals: Azan Awais enters unwanted Pakistan list after Headingley shock in 1st test vs England

Pakistan's tour of England couldn't have started much worse, with opener Azan Awais dismissed off the very first ball of the opening Test at Headingley in Leeds.

Joe Root won the toss and opted to bowl first, and it took just one delivery for that decision to pay off in spectacular fashion.

Ollie Robinson, bowling from round the wicket, produced a peach of a delivery that jagged back sharply into Awais and struck him on the pads. The English fielders erupted immediately, and the umpire's finger went up without hesitation.

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Pakistan opted to send the decision upstairs, but the review only confirmed what everyone already suspected. In the space of one delivery, Pakistan had lost both a wicket and a review, and Awais had no choice but to trudge back to the pavilion.

Awais's dismissal marked only the second time in Pakistan's Test history that a batter has been out on the very first delivery of a match. The only previous instance came all the way back in 1983, when Mohsin Khan was trapped lbw by Kapil Dev in Jalandhar against India.

MORE: 'They are a poor side': Stuart Broad dishes out ultimate insult to Pakistan, predicts whitewash in favour of England

Which teams in Test history have suffered the most first-ball dismissals?

India top the unwanted list with nine such dismissals, including three separate occasions involving the legendary Sunil Gavaskar.

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West Indies and England both sit on six apiece, while Bangladesh have endured it five times, three of those involving opener Hannan Sarkar. South Africa have three instances on record, New Zealand and Australia two each, and Sri Lanka one.

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Who holds the records for first-ball dismissals?

Sunil Gavaskar and Hannan Sarkar share the unfortunate distinction of being dismissed off the first ball of a Test on three separate occasions each, more than any other batter in history.

Strangely enough, every single one of Sarkar's three dismissals came at the hands of the same bowler, West Indies' Pedro Collins, across matches played between 2002 and 2004. On the bowling side, Collins and Australia's Mitchell Starc jointly hold the record for most first-ball strikes, with three apiece.

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LIST: All instances of first-ball Test dismissals

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