Shreyas Iyer has become the third Indian batsman ever to register two fifty plus scores to his name on his test debut. He is the only Indian batsman to be able to do so in the current century, that is, after 2000.
The last Indian batsman who did it before Shreyas Iyer was Sunil Gavaskar, and he did it in 1971 when he played his first test match against West Indies. Gavaskar, however, didn’t get a hundred in that game, but he scored half-centuries in both innings.
Incidentally, it was Sunil Gavaskar himself who had presented Iyer’s first test cap to him on the first day of the test match against New Zealand and Iyer levelled the elite record of the legend in his very first game, batting in tricky situations in both the innings against some quality bowlers.
The first-ever Indian batsman who had gone past the score of 50 twice on his test debut was Dilawar Hussain, and he had done it while playing a test match against England. It was a game that was played a long while back in 1934 itself. Dilawar had scored a 100 and a 50 in the two innings of the game, pretty much like Iyer.
Indians to score 50+ in both Innings on test debut
Dilawar Hussain vs ENG in 1934
Sunil Gavaskar vs WI in 1971
Shreyas Iyer vs NZ in 2021#ShreyasIyer #INDvNZ #CricketAdvertisement— cricstats (@cricstats11) November 28, 2021
Shreyas Iyer lost the opportunity to create history
The way Shreyas Iyer was batting today in the afternoon session, he was looking all set to become the first Indian batsman in the history of test cricket to score two centuries in two innings in his debut test match, but he was dismissed while trying to play a pull shot off a short delivery from Tim Southee and lost the opportunity to create history.
The New Zealand wicketkeeper Tom Blundell held a low catch down the leg side and it ended a gritty knock of 65 from Iyer which, once again in the game, denied New Zealand a position of advantage over India.
