Yorkshire and England great Wilfred Rhodes (1877-1973) was the first to accomplish the feat. His debut Test as a 22-year-old against Australia at Trent Bridge in 1899 incidentally was the farewell Test of the grand old man of cricket, WG Grace, then 50 years and 320 years old. Interestingly, Rhodes was even older than Grace, aged 52 years and 165 days to be exact, when he retired at the end of his last Test against West Indies in Jamaica in 1930. His Test career had spanned 30 years and 165 days, and he had batted in all positions even opening the innings as partner of the man simply called the Master, Jack Hobbs.

Subsequently, two Indians - Vinoo Mankad and Ravi Shastri - emulated the great Rhodes. Mankad played 44 Tests from June 1946 to February 1959 while Shastri appeared in 80 Tests between February 1981 and December 1992 when he played his last Test against South Africa at Port Elizabeth. Mankad even went on to claim the world-record for the first wicket partnership in Tests after compiling 413 for the first wicket with Pankaj Roy against New Zealand on January 6, 1956.