1. One of the original icons of Indian cricket, Lala Amarnath made 38 and 118 in Mumbai Test against England in December 1933. It was the first Test match in India, still under British occupation at the time. A statistical nugget overshadowed by these details is that this was also the debut for England’s Bryan Valentine and he made 136 in their first innings.
2. Batting at No. 8, Roshan Harshadlal ‘Deepak’ Shodhan made 110 against Pakistan in the 1952 Kolkata Test. Astonishingly, the left-handed batsman would play just two more Tests and finish his career with a Test average of 60.33.
3. Gundappa Vishwanath made 137 in the Kanpur test against Australia in 1969.
4. Mohammad Azharuddin announced himself to the world with a slow 110 off 322 balls in the Kolkata Test against England in 1984. He followed that up with 48 & 105 in his second Test in Chennai.
5. Sourav Ganguly made one of the most famous debuts of all, arriving at the big stage with 131 of the finest runs at Lord’s no less in the summer of 1996. Fellow debutant Rahul Dravid fell tragically on 95 in the same innings.
6. On a fresh wicket in Centurion, Virender Sehwag showed the world he wasn’t only a limited overs wonder. He made 105 against South Africa, matching stroke for stroke Sachin Tendulkar who made 155 in a delightful partnership in which they totally dominated the South African attack.
7. Suresh Raina made 120 on his Test debut in Colombo, a match-saving knock on a flat wicket. Unfortunately, that proved to be one of the rare highlights of a Test career that went off its wheels quickly.
8. Shikhar Dhawan made an outstanding start to his Test career. His 85-ball hundred against Australia in the ongoing Mohali Test.
Though Dhawan has broken all the records but he is still a long way off from the world record for the highest Test score: a mammoth 287 by Tip Foster.
- Amarnath’s was also the first ever Testhundred by an Indian, if you discount Kumar Shri Ranjitsinhji, the king of Nawanagar, who played Test cricket for England and made 154 on debut against Australia way back in 1896.
- Another Indian-born to score a hundred on Test debut for England is Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi, father of Mansur Ali Khan, the great Indian captain. Pataudi senior made 102 in the first game of the infamous Bodyline series i
