Hasan Mahmud Becomes First Bangladesh Fast Bowler to Take a Test Hat-Trick
Hasan Mahmud has become the first fast bowler from Bangladesh to take a hat-trick in Test cricket, a milestone that places him in one of the format's most exclusive statistical clubs.
The Bangladesh seamer completed the treble on Sunday, in a Test match against Afghanistan. He is the 50th man in the history of Test cricket to record a hat-trick — a notable achievement for a bowling attack that has historically been built around spin rather than pace.
Thirty-three hat-tricks in 40 years
Mahmud's hat-trick is the 50th recorded in the long history of Test cricket, but the distribution of those feats is far from even. Thirty-three of the 50 have come in the past 40 years, a striking tilt towards the modern era that reflects how much more frequently the milestone has been reached in recent decades than in the first century of the format.
As BBC Sport put it in its report of the landmark: "Hasan Mahmud became the first Bangladesh fast bowler to take a Test hat-trick." That single sentence captures both the national significance of the moment for Bangladesh and the rarity of a Bangladeshi pace bowler — rather than a spinner — joining the list.
BBC turns the milestone into a quiz
With Mahmud now the 50th name on the roll of honour, BBC Sport has challenged cricket followers to recall the rest of it. A quiz asks readers to identify the other bowlers who have taken a Test hat-trick over the past 40 years — a list that spans the great fast bowlers and spinners of the modern game across every Test-playing nation.
The feature sits within BBC Sport's wider quiz section, which invites readers to test their knowledge of the game's statistical history and to submit their own quiz ideas. Related quizzes on the page carry publication dates of 3 April and 26 May.
Rare Test bowling feats in focus
Mahmud's hat-trick lands at a time when the rarest statistical achievements in Test bowling have drawn fresh attention. In earlier coverage, dated 12 September 2026, England's Ollie Robinson entered one of the format's rarest bowling clubs by claiming a sub-19 average across a series, a feat previously matched in the modern era by India's Zaheer Khan against Bangladesh in 2007.
Hat-tricks, though, remain the most immediately recognisable of Test cricket's bowling milestones — three wickets in three deliveries, and now 50 names in all.