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When India recently fielded as many as five debutants Sanju Samson Rahul Chahar Nitesh Rana K Gowtham and Chetan Sakhariya for the third and final oneday international against Sri Lanka with the series already clinched I wondered whether this is unprecedented in Indian ODI cricketI later discovered that it had indeed happened beforemdashat Melbourne where Sunil Gavaskarrsquos Indians played their first game of the triangular series for the World Series Cupmdash40 seasons agoDilip Doshi Kirti Azad Roger Binny Sandeep Patil and TE Srinivasan were the 198081 debutants and underdogs India stunned the hosts in the first ever India v Australia ODII peered through pages of the past to find players and their fellow debutantsWV Raman the former India batsman had interesting Test and ODI debuts He began his ODI career against the 198788 West Indian tourists at Kolkata where Sanjeev Sharma and Ajay Sharma also played their first game for India A few days later Raman was part of Ravi Shastrirsquos Test team he was captain as Dilip Vengsarkar got injured against the same opponents in Chennai where Narendra Hirwani and Ajay Sharma debuted tooChennaibased Raman told me on Tuesday that he was officially added to the squad only the night before that Chennai Test and he had to keep telephoning Shastri all day at the Taj Connemara to check if the selectors had agreed to his inclusion ldquoRavi told me during the ODI series that he would need me in Chennai and he got his way with the selectorsrdquo recalled Raman who checked in at around 830 pm to be part of next dayrsquos Test match against the worldrsquos best sideRaman scored 83 at onedrop in the second innings at Chennai where leggie Hirwani dominated to equal Australian Bob Massiersquos record 16wicket haul on Test debut Ajay Sharma the third debutant could manage 30 and 23 with the bat All this contributed to Indiarsquos first win over the West Indies in 10 years West Indies won the opening Test in New Delhi followed by draws in Mumbai and KolkataThere are other instances of three India players making their debut in the same game Sachin Tendulkar Salil Ankola and Vivek Razdan played their maiden ODI together at Gujranwala on the 198990 tour of Pakistan Tendulkar and Ankola also made their Test debuts in the Karachi Test of that tourMy favourite example of three cricketers getting their first taste of Test cricket in one game is Mohali 2001 when Tinu Yohannan Iqbal Siddiqui and Sanjay Bangar were let loose on England in that order by skipper Sourav Ganguly on Day One of the Test It was the first time three Indian pace bowlers made their debut in one game India outplayed England in the Test and when the hosts had to score just five runs for a 10wicket win Siddiqui surprisingly walked out to open the innings with Deep Dasgupta and scored the winning run after a boundary His debut was his last match for IndiaAt Birmingham in 1996 Test caps were awarded to four Indiansmdashspinner Sunil Joshi seamers Paras Mhambrey and Venkatesh Prasadmdashas well as opening batsman Vikram Rathour England too had debutants in leftarm pacer Alan Mullally spinner Min Patel and Ronnie Irani Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid were capped in the next Test at Lordrsquos Talking of Lordrsquos Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudirsquos 1946 Indian team had seven firsttimers for Indiamdashthe skipper himself Vijay Hazare Vinoo Mankad Rusi Modi SG Shinde Gul Mohammad and AH Kardar the last two players went on to play for Pakistan postpartitionIndiarsquos first Test at homemdashagainst England at the Bombay Gymkhana in 1933 witnessed five debutantsmdashLala Amarnath Vijay Merchant L Ramji LP Jai and RJD Jamshedji Amarnath famously became Indiarsquos first Test centurymaker thenLater in the series Dilawar Hussain MJ Gopalan Mushtaq Ali and CS Nayudu stepped on to the field at Kolkatarsquos Eden Gardens as four debutants The same number of players Hemu Adhikari JK Irani G Kishenchand and Khandu Rangnekar made their debut in Indiarsquos first Test after independencemdashagainst Australia at Brisbanemdashin 194748The Brabourne Stadium Mumbairsquos second Test venue after the Bombay Gymkhana played host to multiple debutants on a few occasions In 195253 the India newbies against Pakistan were wicketkeeper V Rajindernath opening bowler HT Dani and batsman Madhav Apte The late Apte used to often state that his Test debut was more special because he walked out to open Indiarsquos innings with Mankad who was his coach at college level Interestingly Amritsarborn Rajindernath stumped four Pakistanis in that Test without taking a catch He was not needed to bat and didnrsquot play another TestFuture captain Nari Contractor opening batsman Vijay Mehra and opening bowler Sadashiv Shinde formed a debut trio for Indiarsquos Brabourne Stadium Test against the New Zealanders in 195556 The visitors succumbed to an innings defeat caused by Mankadrsquos double century and Subhash Guptersquos eight wicketsIn 195859 the Brabourne Stadium crowd witnessed the debuts of allrounder Chandu Borde policeman pacer Ghulam Guard and middleorder batsman Manohar Hardikar who earned the reputation of a wily captain in domestic cricket for MumbaiGuard grabbed a caught and bowled chance to send back star batsman Garry Sobers for 25 on the first morning and while heading back to the Cricket Club of India pavilion the great West Indian is believed to have told Guard ldquoThatrsquos the biggest arrest yoursquoll ever makerdquoDebuts throw up future heroes and underachievers The five who made their ODI debut for India last Friday know itTheyrsquove also probably heard of the term flatter to deceive Good luckmiddayrsquos group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance He tweets ClaytonMurzelloSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper