Sarfaraz Khan joins Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli in elite list with Maiden Test Ton against New Zealand

Sarfaraz Khan led India’s attack with a strong response from New Zealand in the second innings of the first Test in Bangalore. Sarfaraz (125, 154b) and Rishabh Pant (53, 56b) were dismayed when the rain forced them to have an early lunch. The duo put on 113 runs for an unbroken fourth wicket in just 22 overs. The sight of Rishabh Pant coming out to bat with Sarfaraz may have calmed quite a few nerves in the Indian dressing room after the former missed the third day’s action due to a knock he suffered on the knee on the second day while ‘holding’.

There was almost no doubt about the hero of the first session.

Playing only his fifth Test, the Mumbai opener, who resumed with 70, tamed the cloudy weather and the New Zealand bowlers in flawless fashion as India added 63 runs before the first drinks break.

Most of that came with Sarfaraz’s bat and the way he nullified the Kiwi pacers through late knocks was simply exceptional.

He erased the memory of the duck in the first innings by the ton. And with that, he joined the elite club of Indian batters who scored a ton of runs after being bowled out for a duck in the same Test match.

List of Indian stars who scored a duck in the first innings and a century in the second innings of the same game:

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 125* (vs New Zealand, 2024)

With PTI inputs