Stats: Every Test nation's lowest Test score

Test cricket’s five-day format is as much a test of patience as of skill. Sometimes, though, it turns into a short-lived horror show and teams skittled for scores that would make even tail‑enders blush. From the earliest days at Lord’s to modern encounters in the subcontinent, every Test nation has at least one outing they’d rather forget.

New Zealand hold the unwanted Test cricket record for the lowest total ever: 26 all out to England at Eden Park, Auckland, in March 1955. The West Indies endured their darkest hour just this July, dismissed for 27 by Australia at Sabina Park, Kingston—the second‑lowest total in Test history. South Africa’s worst is 30 all out, recorded in Port Elizabeth during the 1895–96 series against England. This is also the second lowest, and South Africa managed to do it again in 1924.

Australia and India jointly hold the next place. Australia’s record low of 36 all out came against England at Birmingham in May 1902, when Jack Crawford and Fred Tate combined to dismantle the tourists in their second innings. India’s own record low of 36 came far more recently, which was a collapse to Australia’s pace battery in the day–night Test at Adelaide on December 17, 2020. 

One of the new inductees, Ireland, had its lowest total of 38 against England in 2019. Sri Lanka’s lowest, 42 all out against South Africa in Durban, November 2024, was a follow‑up to their 2009 humiliation by Australia. Bangladesh’s poorest Test effort is 43 all out to the West Indies at North Sound in July 2018. England’s own nadir—45 against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground in January 1887, and remains their lowest completed innings. 

Pakistan’s batting collapsed to 49 all out versus South Africa in Johannesburg, February 2013. Zimbabwe’s basement score of 51 came against New Zealand in Napier, January 2012. Among the newer entrants, Afghanistan were bowled out for 103 by India at Bengaluru in June 2018. 

These figures underscore the razor‑thin margins in Test cricket: the same format that celebrates mammoth totals and marathon partnerships can, in the right (or wrong) conditions, end in under two sessions.

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