Do you know? The only Indian batsman to score a century before lunch on Day 1 in Tests

Afghanistan became the 12th country to get the status of a Test-playing playing nation on that day, which was a momentous occasion for them, but India’s Shikhar Dhawan took the spotlight with a record-breaking century on Day 1 of the match in Bengaluru on June 14, 2018. He provided India with a dream start and was the reason behind the team’s victory.

He became just the sixth batter overall to score a century before Lunch, with his century coming in merely 87 balls. India decided to bat first as Afghanistan had their first taste of Test cricket, and the hosts quickly raced to 158/0 in 27 overs at the time of the lunch break, courtesy of the partnership between Dhawan and Murali Vijay.

Shikhar Dhawan scored 107 runs off 96 deliveries, before being dismissed in the second over following lunch. Before Dhawan, the closest that an Indian batter had come to achieving the feat was way back in 2006 when Virender Sehwag scored 99 off 75 on the opening day of the second Test against the West Indies at St. Lucia.

While it was not to be for Sehwag, Dhawan shares this special distinction with Victor Trumper, Charles Macartney, Don Bradman, Majid Khan, and David Warner. The first three occurrences happened before the Second World War, making Dhawan only the third player to reach 100 in the first Test session post World War II. With 19 fours and three sixes, he scored 104 off 91 balls when he left for lunch, and notably, he ran just 10 of these runs.

Dhawan is now focused only on white-ball cricket and has been out of the Test setup for a long time. His numbers in the limited over games have been good, and the opening batter looks to make himself a place in India’s ODI World Cup squad.