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Prithvi Shaw made history: In Numbers

October 05, 2018 09:58 IST

The peaks Prithvi Shaw scaled on the first day of his Test career in numbers, via Rajneesh Gupta.

Prithvi Shaw hits a boundary on the way to his 100. Photograph: PTI

IMAGE: Prithvi Shaw hits a boundary on the way to his 100. Photograph: PTI

Prithvi Shaw became the 293rd player to represent India in Tests on Thursday, October 4, 2018.

Soon he became the second youngest Indian debutant to open the batting for India. Prithvi, however, was not contented by just opening the innings.

Sooner rather than later, Prithvi achieved the distinction of being the youngest Indian batsman to score a fifty on Test debut.

He then made it even better by becoming the youngest Indian batsman to score a hundred on Test debut.

 

Youngest debutants to open the batting for India

Player Age Vs Venue Season
Vijay Mehra 17 years 265 days New Zealand Mumbai BS 1955-1956
Prithvi Shaw 18 years 329 days West Indies Rajkot 2018-2019
Syed Mushtaq Ali 19 years 21 days England Kolkata 1933-1934
Apoorva Sengupta 19 years 172 days West Indies Madras 1958-1959
Dilip Vengsarkar 19 years 293 days New Zealand Auckland 1975-1976

Youngest to score a hundred on Test debut for India

Player Age Vs Venue Season
Prithvi Shaw 18 years 329 days West Indies Rajkot 2018-2019
Abbas Ali Baig 20 years 131 days England Manchester 1959
Gundappa Viswanath 20 years 281 days Australia Kanpur 1969-1970
Mohammad Azharuddin 21 years 330 days England Kolkata 1984-1985
Lala Amarnath 22 years 97 days England Bombay Gymkhana 1933-1934

In all Test cricket, only three players -- Mohammad Ashraful, Hamilton Masakadza and Salim Malik -- have scored a ton on Test debut at a younger age than Prithvi.

It took Prithvi just 99 balls to reach his hundred. Only two batsmen have raced to a debut Test ton off fewer balls than Prithvi.

Fastest hundreds on Test debut

Balls Player For Vs Venue Season
85 Shikhar Dhawan (187) Ind Aus Mohali 2012-2013
93 Dwayne Smith (105*) WI SA Cape Town 2003-2004
99 Prithvi Shaw (134) Ind WI Rajkot 2017-2018
105 Matt Prior (126*) Eng WI Lord's 2007
106 Abul Hasan (113) Ban WI Khulna 2012-2013

Prithvi is now only the third player to score a ton both on first-class debut and Test debut, joining the ranks with Gundappa Viswanath and Dirk Wellham.

Players scoring hundred on first-class and Test debut

Player Score For Vs Venue Season
Gundappa Viswanath 230 Mysore Andhra Vijayawada 1967-1968
  137 India Australia Kanpur 1969-70
           
Dirk Wellham 100 NSW Victoria Melbourne 1980-1981
  103 Australia England The Oval 1981
           
Prithvi Shaw 120 Mumbai Tamil Nadu Rajkot 2016-2017
  134 India West Indies Rajkot 2018-2019

Though it is too early to compare Prithvi with Sachin Tendulkar, there is some similarity between their career paths.

Sachin scored a hundred in all three premier first-class domestic tournaments.

Prithvi missed out in the Irani Trophy but made it with a hundred on Test debut, a feat Sachin could not accomplish.

 

Sachin and Prithvi: A comparison

  Sachin Prithvi
Ranji Trophy 100*, Bombay v Gujarat, 1988-1989 4 & 120, Mumbai v Tamil Nadu, 2016-2017
Irani Trophy 39 & 103*, ROI v Delhi, 1989-1990 51 & 0, ROI v Vidarbha, 2017-2018
Duleep Trophy 159 & 8, West Zone v East Zone, 1990-1991 154 & 31, India Red v India Blue, 2017-2018
Test 15 v Pakistan, 1989-1990 134 v West Indies, 2018-19

 

Prithvi has now scored eight hundreds in only 15 first-class matches.

His tally of hundreds is now the highest for an Indian in first 15 first-class matches.

In fact, only one player in cricket's history has scored more hundreds than Prithvi in first 15 first-class matches!

Most hundreds in first 15 first-class matches

100s Player Matches Innings Not Out Runs Highest Score Average
9 Bill Ponsford 15 23 1 2,057 429 93.50
8 Prithvi Shaw 15 27 1 1,552 188 59.69
7 George Headley 15 28 0 1,941 223 69.32
7 Don Bradman 15 29 6 1,721 340* 74.82
7 Rusi Modi 15 18 3 1,617 245* 107.80
7 Arthur Morris 15 25 2 1,546 155 67.21
7 Rizwan Shamshad 15 24 2 1,512 169 68.72

 

Rajneesh Gupta