King Pair: If a batsman is out in the first ball he has made a golden duck and if a batsman is dismissed the first ball in both innings he has achieved a king pair.
A pair in cricket refers to when a batsman is dismissed for a duck (without scoring) in both innings. This implies that the batsman has only encountered two balls in the match, and he has been knocked out on both of them.
The name originates from the two noughts together being thought to resemble a pair of spectacle, the longer form is occasionally used.
Notably, Sam Curran became the first English cricketer to bag a King Pair at Lord’s.
Most Pairs in Test Debut
New Zealand fast bowler Chris Martin has been dismissed without scoring in both innings in seven Test matches, three more than any other player. Five players have been dismissed for four pairs of ducks in Tests.
Four are bowlers with no great pretensions towards batsmanship – Bhagwat Chandrasekhar of India, Muttiah Muralitharan of Sri Lanka, and West Indians Mervyn Dillon and Courtney Walsh – but the fifth is top-order batsman Marvan Atapattu of Sri Lanka.
He started his Test career with just one run in six innings – including two pairs – and has bagged two more since. The 14 men who have collected three pairs include Glenn McGrath, Curtly Ambrose, and Andrew Flintoff.
King Pairs in Test cricket (Duck Outs)
| Player | Team | Against | Year |
| William Attewell | England | Australia | 1891–92 |
| Ernie Hayes | England | South Africa | 1905-06 |
| Bert Vogler | South Africa | Australia | 1910–11 |
| Tommy Ward | South Africa | Australia | 1912 |
| Robert Crisp | South Africa | 1935-36 | |
| Ian Colquhoun | New Zealand | England | 1954–55 |
| Colin Wesley | South Africa | England | 1960 |
| Bhagwat Chandrasekhar | India | Australia | 1977–78 |
| Gary Troup | New Zealand | India | 1980–81 |
| Dave Richardson | South Africa | Pakistan | 1994–95 |
| Adam Huckle | Zimbabwe | Pakistan | 1997–98 |
| Ajit Agarkar | India | Australia | 1999–2000 |
| Adam Gilchrist | Australia | India | 2000–01 |
| Javed Omar | Bangladesh | India | 2007 |
| Ryan Harris | Australia | England | 2010 |
| Virender Sehwag | India | England | 2011 |
| Rangana Herath | Sri Lanka | Pakistan | 2014 |
| Dhammika Prasad | Sri Lanka | Pakistan | 2015 |
| James Anderson | England | India | 2016 |
| Nuwan Pradeep | Sri Lanka | Pakistan | 2017 |
| Nurul Hasan | Bangladesh | West Indies | 2018 |
| Sam Curran | England | India | 2021 |
Pairs by Test captains
Sarfaraz Ahmed and Faf du Plessis made pairs in the same match, the first time this had happened in the same Test.
Ian Botham’s pair came in his last Test as captain while Mark Taylor, Rashid Latif, and Habibul Bashar recorded a pair in their first games as captain. 23 captains have been dismissed for a pair in Test matches.
| Player | Team | Against | Year |
| Joe Darling | Australia | England | 1902 |
| Louis Tancred | South Africa | England | 1912 |
| Vijay Hazare | India | England | 1951/52 |
| Harry Cave | New Zealand | West Indies | 1955/56 |
| Frank Worrell | West Indies | Australia | 1960/61 |
| Richie Benaud | Australia | England | 1961 |
| Imtiaz Ahmed | Pakistan | England | 1961/62 |
| Bishen Bedi | India | England | 1976/77 |
| Ian Botham | England | Australia | 1981 |
| Allan Border | Australia | West Indies | 1992/93 |
| Mark Taylor | Australia | Pakistan | 1994/95 |
| Stephen Fleming | New Zealand | Australia | 1997/98 |
| Courtney Walsh | West Indies | Pakistan | 1997/98 |
| Rashid Latif | Pakistan | South Africa | 1997/98 |
| Nasser Hussain | England | West Indies | 2000 |
| Jimmy Adams | West Indies | Australia | 2000/01 |
| Waqar Younis | Pakistan | Australia | 2002/03 |
| Habibul Bashar | Bangladesh | Zimbabwe | 2003/04 |
| Marvan Atapattu | Sri Lanka | Pakistan | 2004/05 |
| AB de Villiers | South Africa | England | 2015/16 |
| Sarfaraz Ahmed | Pakistan | South Africa | 2018/19 |
| Faf du Plessis | South Africa | Pakistan | 2018/19 |
| Mominul Haque | Bangladesh | India | 2019/20 |
Pairs in a Test Debut
Following are the details of the players who had a pair in their Test debut:
| Player | Team | Against | Year |
| Fred Grace | England | Australia | 1880 |
| Clarence Wimble | South Africa | England | 1891/92 |
| Joseph Willoughby | South Africa | England | 1895/96 |
| Johannes Kotze | South Africa | Australia | 1902/03 |
| Percy Twentyman-Jones | South Africa | Australia | 1902/03 |
| Tommy Ward | South Africa | Australia | 1912 |
| Percy Lewis | South Africa | England | 1913/14 |
| Cecil Dixon | South Africa | England | 1913/14 |
| Ted Badcock | New Zealand | England | 1929/30 |
| Ken James | New Zealand | England | 1929/30 |
| Jim Smith | England | West Indies | 1934/35 |
| Gordon Rowe | New Zealand | Australia | 1945/46 |
| Len Butterfield | New Zealand | Australia | 1945/46 |
| Cuan McCarthy | South Africa | England | 1948 |
| Alf Valentine | the | West Indies | 1950 |
| Ram Ramchand | India | England | 1952 |
| Graham Gooch | England | Australia | 1975 |
| Brendon Bracewell | New Zealand | England | 1978 |
| Mike Whitney | Australia | England | 1981 |
| Maninder Singh | India | Pakistan | 1982/83 |
| Ken Rutherd | New Zealand | West | 1984/85 |
| Chris Kuggeleijn | New Zealand | India | 1988/89 |
| Rashid Patel | India | New Zealand | 1988/89 |
| Marvan Atapattu | Sri Lanka | India | 1990/91 |
| Saeed Anwar | Pakistan | West Indies | 1990/91 |
| Allan Donald | South Africa | West | 1991/92 |
| Stephen Peall | Zimbabwe | Pakistan | 1993/94 |
| Peter McIntyre | Australia | England | 1994/95 |
| Dirk Viljoen | Zimbabwe | Pakistan | 1997/98 |
| Gavin Hamilton | England | South | 1999/00 |
| James Franklin | New Zealand | Pakistan | 2000/01 |
| Alamgir Kabir | Bangladesh | Sri Lanka | 2002/03 |
| Hasantha Fernando | Sri Lanka | South | 2002/03 |
| Lasith Malinga | Sri Lanka | Australia | 2003/04 |
| Chamara Silva | Sri Lanka | New | 2006/07 |
| Chris Tremlett | England | India | 2007 |
| Mark Gillespie | New Zealand | South | 2007/08 |
| Dean Elgar | South Africa | Australia | 2012/13 |
| Natsai M’shangwe | Zimbabwe | Bangladesh | 2014 |
| Rajendra Chandrika | West Indies | Australia | 2015 |
| Alzarri Joseph | West Indies | India | 2016 |
| Kamrul Islam | Rabbi for | England | 2016 |
| Chadd Sayers | Australia | South | 2018 |
| Andrew Balbirnie | Ireland | Pakistan | 2018 |
| Abdul Malik | Afghanistan | Zimbabwe | 2021 |
Consecutive Pairs
Following are the details of the batsmen who bagged pairs in two Tests in a row.
| Player | Team | Year |
| Bobby Peel | England | 1894–95 |
| Bob Crisp | South Africa | 1935–36 |
| Wayne Clark | Australia | 1977–78 |
| Pat Pocock | England | 1984 |
| Bob Holland | Australia | 1985/1985-86 |
| Mark Waugh | Australia | 1992–93 |
| Glenn McGrath | Australia | 1998–99 |
| Ajit Agarkar | India | 1999–2000 |
| Merv Dillon | West Indies |
1998-99/2000–01
|
| Dinanath Ramnarine | West Indies | 2001–02 |
| Shabbir Ahmed | Pakistan | 2005/2005–06 |
| Nuwan Pradeep | Sri Lanka | 2017–18 |
Also Read: What is DLS Method In Cricket & How It Is Calculated?
