It is not a rare sight for bowlers in Test matches to take ten wickets but bowler’s taking a hat-trick is something that hardly ever happens.
In fact, there are several bowlers who have managed to take ten wickets and also get a hat-trick in their lifetime. Nevertheless, very few of them went further by claiming a Test hundred alongside their masterful batting skills.
The players who have luckily got a century, Ten-for, and hat-trick in Test cricket are listed here below.
1. Johnny Briggs – England
Johnny Briggs was the very first player to get the combination of a century, ten-for and hat-trick in Test cricket. The Englishman scored his only Test century in just his second game. He made 121 runs, 15 of which were boundaries, against Australia in 1885 at the MCG.
The following year, Australia came to England, and in the second match, Briggs got the first of his four ten-wicket match hauls at the Lord’s. He took five wickets in the first inning and got six wickets in the second inning to have a total of 11 for 74 in the match.
Briggs achieved his treble in 1892 when he got his Test hat-trick. The left-arm spinner removed Jack Blackham, Sydney Callaway and Harry Moses to declare the second inning of Australia ended at 391 runs. Briggs retired from the format in 1899, having scored 815 runs and 118 runs in 33 games.
2. Wasim Akram – Pakistan
A century later, Wasim Akram came to take the place of Briggs in this exclusive club. The former Pakistani fast bowler made his Test debut in 1985, and in his second match, he took five wickets against New Zealand which was his very first ten-for. His innings figures were five for 56 and five for 72.
After five years, Akram swung his bat to bring up his first Test century against the Australians. He got 123 runs coming in at No. 7 in the second innings, and he even helped Pakistan to set a 304 runs target, although the match finished without a winner.
The left-armer claimed his first hat-trick in 1999 against Sri Lanka, in the Asian Test Championship. He got Romesh Kaluwitharana out for 100, then clean-bowled Niroshan Bandaratilleke and Pramodya Wickramasinghe on the next balls.
Just a few days after, Akram took his second hat-trick against the same team and led Pakistan to win the Asian Test Championship final. In total, he got 414 wickets, which included 5 ten-wicket hauls and 2898 runs with three hundreds among them.
3. Harbhajan Singh – India
The Indian off spinner Harbhajan Singh went a step higher than the previous two cricketers by taking his first ten-wicket haul and hat-trick in a single Test match. This singular achievement took place during the historic 2001 Kolkata Test against Australia, where he was one of the main players responsible for India’s victory.
In the first innings, the off-spinner got Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist, and Shane Warne out on three consecutive balls, contributing to his seven wickets. He then picked up another six scalps to end up with 13 for 196, helping India script a massive comeback.
After nine years, however, Harbhajan had proved his worth with the bat when the top-order batsmen failed to make a fight. He scored a magnificent 115-run knock against New Zealand in the 2010 Ahmedabad Test. The legendary spinner went on to hit his second Test century in the following match, this time an unbeaten 111.
In his 103 Tests, Harbhajan took 417 wickets, including 5 ten-wicket hauls, and scored 2224 runs. He had a glorious Test career for India.
4. Irfan Pathan – India
Irfan Pathan’s Test career was quite brief, nevertheless, he demonstrated his value as both a batsman and a bowler. He became the second Indian in the history of Test cricket to achieve the “triple” of a century, ten-wicket haul, and hat-trick.
The 2004 Bangladesh tour marked the occasion of Pathan’s first ten-wicket haul. He bowled the opponents out for very few runs in one and another, capturing five and six wickets, respectively, in the Dhaka Test.
In 2006, Pathan again created a sensation by his hat- trick in Karachi against Pakistan. The most amazing thing about this hat-trick is that he got rid of Pakistan’s three batters in a row in the very first over of the Test. The left-arm fast bowler dismissed Salman Butt on the fourth ball, and then Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf on the next two balls.
The following year, the all-rounder brought his bat and did so against the same rival in Bengaluru. Pathan counted 102 runs while batting at no. 8, thus contributing to the 626 runs scored by India in the first innings. The game, however, ended in a stalemate.
Pathan’s career lasted just 29 Tests in which he made 1105 runs and took 100 wickets, including two five-wicket hauls.
5. Stuart Broad – England
Within two years, Stuart Broad achieved the treble. The 2007 Test debut marked the beginning of the England bowler’s career. His first hundred came in 2010, illustrating his batting power sufficiently. Broad’s best and magnificent 169 runs came against Pakistan during the famous Lord’s Test and he was the sole reason that the team got out of a horrible situation.
The following year, he got the first of his two Test hat-tricks. He bowled out MS Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh, and Praveen Kumar on three balls in a row in the 2011 Nottingham Test. Broad added another hat-trick three summers later against Sri Lanka.
His anticipation to grab a ten-for just like other bowlers at last finished in May 2012 when the right-armer seamer commenced the summer with seven wickets. Then he went on and got four more wickets against West Indies and that made him the fourth player of the Lord’s to get a century, fifer, and ten-wicket haul in Tests.
Broad had his retirement officially recognized in 2023, putting an end to his 167-match career with a total of 607 wickets, including 3 ten-fors, and 3662 runs with the bat.
6. Moeen Ali – England
Moeen Ali, the second English player, was an exceptional all-rounder. He was in the Test squad in 2014, and in his second game, he made a big hundred not out.
The first century of Ali was scored in a losing cause against Sri Lanka when he was the only one standing with 108 while the team was trying to reach a target of 350.
Fast forward four years and the off-spinner got his only Test ten-for against South Africa in the 2017 Lord’s Test. Ali claimed four victims in the first innings and took six in the second to finish with match figures of ten for 112.
In the third Test of the same series, Ali performed a hat-trick at the Oval. He sent Elgar, Rabada, and Morkel back to the pavilion, that gave England a 239-run win. What’s fascinating about this hat-trick is that Stokes was the one who caught all three batsmen.
Ali, too, bid goodbye to Test cricket alongside Broad, and during his career, he scored 3094 runs with five centuries and took 204 wickets.
7. Gus Atkinson – England
Since the time Bub Atkinson entered the Test scene in July 2024 he has renaming nothing but a record breaker. At the very start of his first-class career, he took ten wickets against the West Indies at Lord’s. Initially, he picked up seven wickets in the first innings and five more in the second innings to total 12 wickets for 106 runs.
After a month, Atkinson was back at Lord’s against Sri Lanka and he hit his first-ever Test hundred. He played 118 off 115 balls in the first innings to lead England to 427, coming in as the sixth man to have a five-for, ten-for, and century at Lord’s.
The right-arm fast bowler took only his tenth Test match to get a hat-trick against New Zealand in December. Atkinson dismissed Nathan Smith, Matt Henry, and Tim Southee in his ninth over, and the Kiwis were all out for 125. England won the Test at Wellington by a huge margin of 323 runs.
Among the players on this list, Atkinson was the one who took the least number of matches to complete this unique trifecta.
