His captaincy improved better and better with every game in all formats. On 16 July 2017, in the one-off test against Sri Lanka at R Premadasa Stadium, Cremer took his maiden test five-wicket haul. With that, Cremer became the first Zimbabwe captain to take a five-wicket haul as well. However, Zimbabwe lost the match by 4 wickets, where Sri Lanka successfully chased 388 runs to post highest ever run-chase in Asia in tests. Cremer took 9 wickets in the match for 275 runs, which was recorded as best by a Zimbabwe captain in Tests.