Stats: Australia's No.3 to No.6 bag ducks in the Dubai Test match

Australia’s struggles in Asia continued as they are well behind the first Test match in Dubai needing another 326 runs to win with only seven wickets hand on the final day. In response to Pakistan’s first innings total of 482, Australia had a 142-run opening stand between the debutant Aaron Finch and Usman Khawaja. However, they collapsed once the partnership was broken and were bowled out for only 202.

The same was seen in Australia’s second innings as they lost three wickets at the score of 87 after a decent opening stand. In the first innings, the debutants Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne got out in the same over without scoring while batting at No.5 and No.6. In the second innings, the Marsh brothers, Shaun at No.3 and Mitchell at No.4 were dismissed by Mohammad Abbas for nought.

As a result, Australia’s No.3 to No.6 batsmen got out for ducks at least once in this Test. Thus, this became only the 2nd Test match for Australia where their No.3-6 batsmen were dismissed for a duck at least once. The other such instance was way back in the 1888 Test match against England in Manchester. Overall, this is only the 8th instance of batsmen between No.3 to No.6 of a team bagging ducks in the same Test.

The last of the previous seven was recorded by India in the final Test match on the England tour. India’s vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane got out for a duck in the first innings of the Oval test while Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli and Hanuma Vihari were dismissed for a duck in the second innings. Bangladesh had a similar instance when they were bowled out for just 43 earlier this year against the Windies.

No.3-6 batsmen of a team bagging ducks in a Test match:

Other than the above mentioned eight instances, there are two others where the same batsman bagged ducks while batting at different positions between 3 and 6 with the other two players completing the set. Windies skipper Jimmy Adams was dismissed for a duck while batting at No.5 and No.4 respectively in the 2000 MCG Test against Australia. Bangladesh skipper Habibul Bashar bagged a pair at No.3 and No.4 in the 2004 Harare Test against Zimbabwe.

(Stats as on October 10, 2018)

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