Shreyas Iyer had a dream start to his Test career as he smashed a brilliant hundred against New Zealand in Kanpur on Friday to become just the 16th Indian to score a century on Test debut. Iyer, who received his Test cap from Sunil Gavaskar on Day 1, reached the three-figure mark off 157 balls.
Lala Amarnath, Deepak Shodhan, AG Kripal Singh, Abbas Ali Baig, Hanumant Singh, Gundappa Vishwanath, Surender Amarnath, Mohammad Azharuddin, Pravin Amre, Sourav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag, Suresh Raina, Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma and Prithvi Shaw are the other 15 Indian batsmen to have scored a hundred on their Test debut.
Notably, Iyer became only the second batter on the elite list to have reached the milestone at the same venue after Vishwanath. The 26-year-old is also the third Indian to score a hundred on debut against New Zealand.
Arjan Kripal Singh, who achieved the feat in 1955, and Surinder Amarnath, who scored a hundred against the Black Caps on his debut in 1976, are the other two Indians to have achieved the same. Iyer is also the third successive Mumbai player after Rohit Sharma and Prithvi Shaw slam a hundred on Test debut.
Earlier, on Day 1, Iyer nearly holed out in the deep trying to score his first Test runs but soon figured out a safer way to do so. Iyer took his time to get used to the sluggish conditions at Green Park before taking the attack on the New Zealand spinners. Iyer played his natural aggressive game but he did not look reckless at any stage during his dominant knock on debut, according to Laxman.
