Most consecutive Test matches played by a specialist bowler (male)

Spin bowler Nathan Lyon (Australia) chalked up 100 consecutive Test-match appearances when he played in the Second Ashes Test against England at Lord’s in London, UK, starting on 28 June 2023. Previously, only players known predominantly as batters had reached the landmark: Alastair Cook (159 consecutive matches for England), Allan Border (153 for Australia), Mark Waugh (107 for Australia), Sunil Gavaskar (106 for India) and Brendon McCullum (101 for New Zealand). In a cruel twist of fate, Lyon picked up a significant calf strain while fielding on day two of the Lord’s Test and was forced to sit out the rest of the Ashes tour, thus ending his run of consecutive appearances – dating back to the Third Ashes Test at Old Trafford, Manchester, UK, on 1–5 August 2013 – at a round 100.

Sidelined as a bowler since hobbling off the field at Lord’s on 29 June 2023, Lyon’s Test career to date (as of 11 November 2023) has featured 496 wickets at an average of precisely 31, in 122 matches played since 31 August 2011.

He was an instant success for Australia, bagging five wickets for 34 runs on debut against Sri Lanka at Galle International Stadium. Between the Third Ashes Test on 1–5 August 2013 (the first of his 100 matches in a row) and the Fifth Ashes Test on 27–31 July 2023 (the final Test of the series in which he featured before injury), Lyon was the world’s leading Test wicket-taker with 420 scalps.

Stuart Broad was second on the list with 405 wickets in 108 matches played between 1–5 August 2013 and 27–31 July 2023.