Sarfaraz Khan Joins Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli In Elite List After Slamming Maiden Test Century Vs New Zealand
Photo : AP/ICC/X
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
- Sarfaraz Khan scored his maiden Test Century in India's second innings of the first Test vs New Zealand.
- He scored a duck in the first innings.
- He joins Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli and Sunil Gavaskar in an elite list.
India are currently taking on New Zealand in the first Test of the three-match series at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. The Indian batting lineup showed some prowess in their second innings after being bundled out for just 46 in the first innings. The man who is propelling India as they chase a lofty 356-run lead is Sarfaraz Khan, who only got a chance in the playing XI because of an injury to Shubman Gill. He made the full use of his chance, as he slammed his maiden Test century.
Sarfaraz Khan Joins Sachin, Gavaskar, Kohli In Elite List
In the first innings of the match, Sarfaraz Khan got out for a duck. He redeemed himself in the second innings, as he slammed a century in just 110 balls at a strike rate of above 90. He thus becomes the 9th Indian ever to score a century in the second innings after getting for 0 in the first innings of a Test match. He joins the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Sunil Gavaskar and Virat Kohli in this elite list.
Here are the players to score a duck in the first innings and a century in the second innings of the same Test Match:
Madhav Apte- 0 and 163 (Vs West Indies, 1953)
Sunil Gavaskar- 0 and 118 (vs Australia, 1977)
Dilip Vengsarkar- 0 and 103 (vs England, 1979)
Mohammad Azharuddin- 0 and 109 (vs Pakistan, 1989)
Sachin Tendulkar- 0 and 136 (Vs Pakistan, 1999)
Shikhar Dhawan- 0 and 114 (Vs New Zealand, 2014)
Virat Kohli- 0 and 104 (vs Sri Lanka, 2017)
Shubman Gill- 0 and 119 (vs Bangladesh, 2024)
Sarfaraz Khan- 0 and 114* (vs New Zealand, 2024)
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Why Sarfaraz Khan Came Out At No.4 Instead Of Virat Kohli?
In an interaction after the play on Day 2, India captain Rohit Sharma said that they wanted to play Sarfaraz Khan at his usual position in the middle or lower-middle order at no.4, 5, or 6. While there were calls to promote KL Rahul to no.3 in the absence of Gill, Rohit said that they did not want to change the batting order of both Rahul and Rishabh Pant. Hence, it was Virat Kohli who was promoted to no.3.
"We wanted to give Sarfraz the position that he usually bats four, five, six maybe. But we didn't want to change Rishabh and KL (Rahul). Hence, Sarfraz went at four and Virat batted at three," Rohit said.
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