Flashback: Shikhar Dhawan is the only Indian batsman to achieve this special feat

Little does the format of the game matter for a few batsmen. Be it the ODIs or T20Is or even the Tests, they bat the same way. One such Indian batsman was Virender Sehwag who used to send the shivers down the spine of the opposition bowlers. His strike-rate suggests that he played the longest format of the game like T20s itself.

But one would be surprised to know that he never scored a century before lunch on Day 1. Only six batsmen have managed to do so in the history of cricket. Rather conditions to score runs in the opening session of the first Test have become so tough that only two batsmen have done the unthinkable since the 1976-77 season. One of them and the only Indian batsman to do so is Shikhar Dhawan.

In 2018, India invited Afghanistan for the one-off Test who were making their debut in the longest format. It was a historic occasion and after India opted to bat first, Dhawan made it a memorable day for himself as well. Afghanistan’s bowlers were found wanting with the red ball and they failed to stop the run-flow.

Indian openers, especially, Dhawan scored runs for fun and even took on the opposition’s ace bowler Rashid Khan to leave them stunned. The southpaw rather went on to slam 104 runs before lunch and became the first-ever Indian to score more than 100 runs on the first day of the Test match before lunch.

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He also becomes the first Indian to score a century before Lunch on Day 1 of Test cricket.#INDvAFG #dhawan #Gabbar pic.twitter.com/0ENbPZ8Eho

— karthik kumar sv (@svkarthik5996) June 14, 2018

However, he soon got out after lunch on 107 runs. India posted 474 runs in their first innings while and then bundled out the new entrants of the format for just 109 and 103 runs in two innings winning the match comfortably in less than 2 days. Shikhar Dhawan, for his scintillating knock, was named the Man of the Match.