Flashback: Father-son duos to score Test double centuries

Tagenarine Chanderpaul scored his first century in international cricket during West Indies’ latest Test against Zimbabwe, in his third Test match only, to announce his arrival. The son of legendary cricketer Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the 26-year-old left-handed opener converted his maiden century into a double hundred, 207* off 467 in the first innings. Notably, Shivnarine also scored two double centuries in Tests and will be proud of his son’s early success in international cricket.

There are 11 father-son duo who score centuries in Test cricket, including two from India, but only one father-son duo scored a double century in Tests before Shivnarine-Tagenarine Chanderpaul.

Hanif-Shoaib Mohammad

Pakistan’s former cricketers Hanif Mohammad and Shoaib were the first father-son duo to score a double ton in Tests. Hanif, the right-handed wicketkeeper batter, was the first Pakistani cricketer to score a triple century in Test cricket, 337, which remains the highest score by any cricketer in the world in the second innings. He also scored 203* against New Zealand in 1965, his only double hundred in Tests.

Three of Hanif’s brothers played international cricket and later his son Shoaib also followed family tradition in 1983. Shoaib, an opener like his father, scored 2705 runs from 45 Tests at an average of 44.34 with seven hundreds, including two 203* knocks against India and New Zealand.

Shivnarine-Tagenarine Chanderpaul

There was fan-created hype around Tagenarine’s debut in international cricket, not only because of his impressive first-class numbers but because of his father’s contribution to red-ball cricket. Shivnarine scored 11867 runs from 164 Tests at an average of 51.37 with the help of 30 centuries, including two double tons.

Tagenarine made his international debut during the West Indies tour of Australia at the end of last year and scored 160 runs in two matches. He made a big impact in the recent first Test against Zimbabwe with an unbeaten double-century in the first innings and won the Player of the Match award as well. With this knock, he became the first father-son duo for West Indies to score a century in Test cricket and the only the second father-son duo to score a double ton.